Chevy Chase
Chase at PaleyFest in March 2010
Birth name	Cornelius Crane Chase
Born	(1943-10-08) October 8, 1943 (age 71) New York City, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, Film, Television
Years active	1967–present
Genres	Sketch comedy, Improvisational comedy, Physical comedy, Slapstick
Influences	Ernie Kovacs
Influenced	Mike Myers, Will Ferrell, Tim Allen, Will Arnett, Ryan Reynolds
Spouse	Suzanne Chase (1973–1976) Jacqueline Carlin (1976–1980) Jayni Luke (1982–present)
Emmy Awards
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy-Variety or Music Series 1976 Saturday Night Live 1978 The Paul Simon Special Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Variety or Music 1976 Saturday Night Live

Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (/ˈtʃɛvi/; born October 8, 1943)[1] is an American comedian, actor, and writer.[2] Born into a prominent New York family, Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before he moved into comedy and began acting with National Lampoon. He quickly became a key cast member in the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live, where his Weekend Update skit soon became a staple of the show.

Chase is well known for his portrayal of the character Clark Griswold in four National Lampoon's Vacation films, and for his roles in comedies including Foul Play (1978), Caddyshack (1980), Seems Like Old Times (1980), Fletch (1985), Spies Like Us (1985), and ¡Three Amigos! (1986). He has hosted the Academy Awards twice (1987 and 1988) and briefly had his own late-night talk show, The Chevy Chase Show. In 2009, he became a regular cast member (Pierce Hawthorne) on the NBC comedy series Community. Chase left the show in 2012, having already filmed most of the episodes in season 4.[3][4]

Early life

Family

Chevy Chase was born in Lower Manhattan, New York City. His father, Edward Tinsley "Ned" Chase, was a prominent Manhattan book editor and magazine writer. His mother, Cathalene Parker (née Browning), a concert pianist and librettist, was the daughter of admiral Miles Browning, who served a critical role at the Battle of Midway in World War II; she was adopted as a child by her stepfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, heir to The Crane Company, and took the name Cathalene Crane.[5] Chase's paternal grandfather was artist/illustrator Edward Leigh Chase, and his great-uncle was painter/teacher Frank Swift Chase. His maternal grandmother, Cathalene (Parker), was an opera singer who performed several times at Carnegie Hall.[6] Chase was named for his adoptive grandfather Cornelius, while the nickname Chevy was bestowed by his grandmother, derived from the medieval English The Ballad of Chevy Chase. As a descendant of the Scottish Clan Douglas, the name "Chevy" seemed appropriate to her.[7][7]

Chase is a fourteenth-generation New Yorker, and was listed in the Social Register at an early age. His mother's ancestors arrived in Manhattan starting in 1624; among his ancestors are New York City mayors Stephanus Van Cortlandt and John Johnstone; John Morin Scott, General of the New York Militia during the American Revolution; Anne Hutchinson, dissident Puritan preacher and healer; and Mayflower passengers and signers of the Mayflower Compact, John Howland,[8] and the Pilgrim colonist leader and spiritual elder of the Plymouth Colony, William Brewster. According to his brother John:

"[Chevy] once told me that people who defined themselves in terms of their ancestry were like potatoes – the best parts of them were underground. He disdained the pretension of my mother's side of the family, as embodied by her mother, Cattie".[7]

As a child, Chase vacationed at Castle Hill, the Cranes' summer estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts.[9] Chase's parents divorced when he was four; his father remarried into the Folgers coffee family, and his mother remarried twice. He has stated that he grew up in an upper middle class environment and that his adoptive maternal grandfather did not bequeath any assets to Chase's mother when he died.[10] In a 2007 biography, Chase claims that he was abused as a child by his mother and stepfather, John Cederquist.[11] Both his parents died in 2005.

Schooling and music

Chase attended Riverdale Country School[12] before being expelled. He ultimately graduated from the Stockbridge School[13] in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He then attended Haverford College during the 1962–63 term, where he was noted for slapstick comedy and an absurd sense of physical humor (including his signature pratfalls and "sticking forks into his orifices"[14]). Although he ostensibly verified the oft-publicized urban legend that he was expelled for harboring a cow in his fourth floor room during a 2009 interview on The Today Show,[15] his former roommate David Felson asserted in a 2003 interview that Chase left for academic reasons.[14] Chase transferred to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, where he studied a pre-med curriculum and graduated in 1967 with a BA in English.

Chase did not enter medical school, which meant he would be subject to the military draft. Chase was not drafted; when he appeared in January 1989 as the first guest of the just-launched late-night Pat Sajak Show, he said he had convinced his draft board he deserved a 4-F classification by "falsely claiming, among other things, that he had homosexual tendencies".[16]

Chase played drums with the college band The Leather Canary, headed by school friends Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. Chase has called the group "a bad jazz band"; Becker and Fagen later founded the successful group Steely Dan. Chase has absolute pitch.[7] He played drums and keyboards for a rock band called Chamaeleon Church, which recorded one album for MGM Records before disbanding in 1969. To give the album a more soft-rock sound, producer Alan Lorber made several alterations in the mixing, including the muting of Chase's bass drum, and Chase was reportedly incensed when he heard the final mix.[17] Before becoming famous as a writer, actor and comedian, Chase worked in many odd jobs including as a cab driver, truck driver, motorcycle messenger, construction worker, waiter, busboy, fruit picker, produce manager of a supermarket, audio engineer, salesman in a wine store, and a theater usher.

Early career

Chase was a member of an early underground comedy ensemble called Channel One which he co-founded in 1967. He also wrote a one-page spoof on Mission: Impossible for Mad Magazine in 1970 and was a writer for the short-lived Smothers Brothers TV show comeback in the early 1970s. Chase made the move to comedy as a full-time career by 1973, when he became a cast member of The National Lampoon Radio Hour, a syndicated satirical radio series. The Lampoon Radio Hour also featured John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, and Brian Doyle-Murray, all of whom later became "Not-Ready-For-Prime Time Players" on NBC Saturday Night (later retitled NBC's Saturday Night and finally Saturday Night Live). Chase and Belushi also appeared in National Lampoon's off-Broadway revue Lemmings, a sketch and musical send-up of popular youth culture (in which Chase also played the drums during the musical numbers). He appeared in the theatrical release The Groove Tube which was directed by another co-founder of Channel One, Ken Shapiro, and which featured several Channel One sketches.

Saturday Night Live

Chase was one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live (SNL), NBC's late-night comedy television show, beginning in October 1975. During the first season, he introduced every show except one by saying, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" The remark was often preceded by a pratfall, known as "The Fall of the Week". Chase became known for his skill at physical comedy. In one comedy sketch, he mimicked a real-life incident in which President Gerald Ford accidentally tripped while disembarking from Air Force One in Salzburg, Austria.[18][19] This portrayal of President Ford as a bumbling klutz became a favorite device of Chase and helped form the popular concept of Ford as being a clumsy man.[20] In later years, Chase met and became friendly with President Ford.[21][22] Chase's physical stunts led to at least one self-injury.

Chase was the original anchor for the Weekend Update segment of SNL, and his catchphrase introduction, "I'm Chevy Chase . . . and you're not" became well known. His trademark conclusion, "Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow" was later resurrected by Jane Curtin and Tina Fey. Chase also wrote comedy material for Weekend Update. For example, he wrote and performed "The News for the Hard of Hearing". In this skit, Chase would read the top story of the day, aided by Garrett Morris, who would repeat the story by loudly shouting it. Chase claimed that his version of Weekend Update would later be the inspiration for other mock-news shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.[23] (Weekend Update was later revived as a segment on The Chevy Chase Show,[24] a short-lived late-night talk-show produced by Chase and broadcast by Fox Broadcasting Company.)

Chase also performed in other skits on SNL including a recurring role as the Land Shark, a parody of the blockbuster movie Jaws. His racially charged "word association" skit opposite Richard Pryor from SNL's first season is frequently cited by television critics as one of the funniest (and most daring) skits in the show's history.

 

Chevy Chase at the private party after the premiere of the movie A Star is Born, December 1976

Chase became the first breakout star of SNL. He was committed contractually to Saturday Night Live for only one year as a writer, not an SNL cast member. He had signed a one-year writing contract and became a cast member during rehearsals just before the show's premiere. Nonetheless, he received two Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award for his comedy writing and live comic acting.

In a 1975 New York magazine cover story which called him "The funniest man in America", NBC executives referred to Chase as "The first real potential successor to Johnny Carson" and claimed he would begin guest-hosting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson within six months of the article. Chase actually never did guest host the Tonight Show during his early peak years of success, dismissing chatter that he could be the next Carson by telling New York, "I'd never be tied down for five years interviewing TV personalities." In fact, Chase did not even appear on the program until 1978, when he was promoting a prime time special for NBC. Carson later said of Chase; "He couldn't ad lib a fart after a baked bean dinner".[25]

Chase acknowledged Ernie Kovacs' influence on his work in Saturday Night Live,[26] and he thanked Kovacs during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for Saturday Night Live.[27] In addition, Chase spoke of Kovacs' influence on his work in an appearance in the 1982 documentary called Ernie Kovacs: Television's Original Genius.[28]

Leaving SNL

In 1976, Chase was the first member of the original cast to leave the show, after his contract ended. While Chase was offered starring roles in films due to his SNL fame, he attributes his departure to wanting to be with his girlfriend, Jacqueline Carlin, who did not want to move to New York.[29] After leaving SNL, Chase moved to Los Angeles and married Carlin. Chase made a few appearances as the second season wound down; he was eventually replaced by Bill Murray.

After leaving the show, Chase hosted SNL eight times through 1997. He appeared on the show's 25th anniversary special in 1999 and was interviewed for a 2005 NBC special on SNL's first five years. He also made five later appearances: a Caddyshack skit featuring Bill Murray, a 1997 episode with guest host Chris Farley, as the Landshark in Weekend Update in 2001 episode, again on Weekend Update in 2007, and in Justin Timberlake's monologue in 2013 (as a member of the Five-Timers Club, where he was reunited with his Three Amigos co-stars Steve Martin and Martin Short).

Film

Chase's early film roles included Tunnel Vision, Foul Play, and Oh Heavenly Dog. The role of Eric 'Otter' Stratton in National Lampoon's Animal House was originally written with Chase in mind, but he turned the role down to work on Foul Play.[10] The role went to Tim Matheson instead. Chase said in an interview that he chose to do Foul Play so he could do "real acting" for the first time in his career instead of just doing "schtick".[30] Chase followed Foul Play with the successful Harold Ramis comedy Caddyshack, in 1980. That same year, he also reunited with Goldie Hawn (his co-star in the box office hit Foul Play) in Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times and released a self-titled record album, co-produced by Chase and Tom Scott, with novelty and cover versions of songs by Randy Newman, Barry White, Bob Marley, the Beatles, Donna Summer, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Troggs, and the Sugarhill Gang.

 

Chevy Chase at the premiere of the movie Seems Like Old Times, December 10, 1980

Chase narrowly escaped death by electrocution during the filming of Modern Problems in 1980. During a sequence in which Chase's character wears "landing lights" as he dreams that he is an airplane, the current in the lights short-circuited and arced through Chase's arm, back, and neck muscles. The near-death episode caused Chase to experience a period of deep depression, as his marriage to Jacqueline had ended just prior to the start of filming. Chase continued his film career in 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation, directed by Ramis and written by John Hughes. He married Jayni Luke in 1983, and in 1985, he starred in Fletch, the first of two films based on Gregory Mcdonald's Fletch books. Chase joined SNL veterans Steve Martin and Martin Short in the Lorne Michaels-produced comedy ¡Three Amigos! in 1986, declaring in an interview that making ¡Three Amigos! was the most fun he had had on a film. The trio hosted SNL that year, the only time the show has had three hosts on one show.

At the height of his career in the late 1980s, Chase earned around US$7 million per film and was a highly visible celebrity. He appeared alongside Paul Simon, one of his best friends, in Simon's 1986 second video for "You Can Call Me Al", in which he lip-syncs all of Simon's lyrics. Chase hosted the Academy Awards in 1987 and 1988, signing on to the proceedings in 1987 with the opener, "Good evening, Hollywood phonies!" Chase filmed a sequel to Vacation, 1985's National Lampoon's European Vacation and then a third, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, in 1989, which, thanks to its holiday theme, has become one of his more durable films, airing on NBC every December. He played saxophone onstage at Simon's free concert at the Great Lawn in Central Park in the summer of 1991. Later in 1991, he helped record and appeared in the music video "Voices That Care" to entertain and support U.S. troops involved in Operation Desert Storm, and supported the International Red Cross.

Later work

Chase's career took a downturn in the early '90s. Chase had three consecutive film flops: 1991's Razzie award-nominated Nothing but Trouble, 1992's Memoirs of an Invisible Man, and 1994's Cops & Robbersons. The three releases had a combined gross of $34 million in the U.S. Even the durable Vacation series ground to a halt, following 1997's Vegas Vacation installment. Some of the more recent movies starring Chase (e.g., Vacuums, Rent-a-Husband, Goose!) have not been released in the United States. He returned to mainstream movie-making in 2006, co-starring with Tim Allen and Courteney Cox in the comedy Zoom, though it was both a critical and commercial failure.

In September 1993, Chase hosted The Chevy Chase Show, a weeknight talk show, for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Though it had high commercial expectations, the show was cancelled by Fox after only five weeks. Chase later appeared in a commercial for Doritos, airing during the Super Bowl, in which he made humorous reference to the show's failure.

Chase was Hasty Pudding's 1993 Man of the Year, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994. After having starred with Farrah Fawcett in the relatively successful Man of the House in 1995, he received Harvard Lampoon's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[31]

He was roasted by the Friars Club for a Comedy Central television special in 2002. This roast was noted for being unusually mean.[32] The only cast members of Saturday Night Live's first season who appeared at the roast were Laraine Newman (one of the actors on the show), and Paul Shaffer (a band leader on the show, and the host of the roast).

In 2005, Chase was the keynote speaker at Princeton University's Class Day, part of commencement activities.

On March 20, 2012, Dan Aykroyd announced through his Facebook page that he is working with Chase on a script for a new comedy that would star the two actors. The film would be their fifth together and first since 1991's Nothing but Trouble.[33]

Return to television

Chase guest-starred as an anti-Semitic murder suspect in "In Vino Veritas", the November 3, 2006 episode of Law & Order. He also guest-starred in the ABC drama series Brothers & Sisters in two episodes as a former love interest of Sally Field's character. Chase appeared in a prominent recurring role as villainous software magnate Ted Roark on the NBC spy-comedy Chuck. In 2009, Chase and Dan Aykroyd provided voices for the Family Guy episode "Spies Reminiscent of Us".

Chase starred in the NBC sitcom Community, as aging moist-towelette tycoon Pierce Hawthorne, starting in 2009. However, Chase left the show in 2012 after completing the majority of the episodes of Season 4. He returned for a cameo appearance in the Season 5 premiere. Though he had sometimes been involved in public disputes with creator Dan Harmon over the direction of the show, the role was nevertheless his most prominent in many years.

In 2010, he appeared in the film Hot Tub Time Machine, as well as a short online film featuring the Griswold Family, and in the Funny or Die original comedy sketch "Presidential Reunion", where he played President Ford alongside other current and former SNL president impersonators.

TV commercials

Chase has appeared in a number of television commercials, including Dollar Rent-a-Car (1996), Doritos (1996), History Channel (1999), Aflac (2003), Cola Turka (2003), T-Mobile (2009) and Chase Manhattan Bank (2010).[34]

Personal life

 

Chevy Chase with CA-TF7 Search and Rescue. He thanked them for their work at World Trade Center after September 11, 2001 attacks.

 

Gerald Ford and Chevy Chase sit before the Conference on Humor and the Presidency held at the Gerald R. Ford Museum in 1986.

Chase is the father of three daughters, Cydney Cathalene (born January 4, 1983), Caley Leigh (born January 19, 1985), and Emily Evelyn (born September 29, 1988). He lives with his wife, Jayni (née Luke), in Bedford, New York.

Chevy's first marriage to Jacqueline Carlin was formalized on December 4, 1976. After 17 months, his marriage to Carlin was dissolved through a divorce—the annulment was evidently related to his alcohol and cocaine use. His daily cocaine consumption was reportedly more than two grams (0.07 oz.), and the side effects of such drug use were megalomania, paranoia and incoherence.[35]

In 1986, Chase was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for treatment of an addiction to prescription painkillers. His use of these drugs reportedly began after he experienced ongoing back pain related to the many pratfalls he took beginning with his Saturday Night Live appearances.[36] In 2010, he said that his drug abuse had been "low level".[37]

Chase is an active environmentalist, charity fundraiser and liberal Democrat. He raised money and campaigned for Bill Clinton in the 1990s and John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election. Following the 2004 elections, Chase criticized President George W. Bush during a speech at a People For the American Way benefit at the Kennedy Center, referring to the President as an "uneducated, real lying schmuck" and a "dumb fuck". Event organizers and several Bush detractors present at the event distanced themselves from Chase's comments, with Norman Lear remarking, "he'll live with it, I won't."[38]

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio

References

Further reading

• I'm Chevy Chase...and You're Not (The Authorized Biography) by Rena Fruchter. Virgin Books, 2007. ISBN 1-85227-346-1.
• Who's Who in Comedy by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 102–103. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0-8160-2338-7.
• Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. Back Bay Books.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chevy Chase.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Chevy Chase

• Chevy Chase at the Internet Movie Database
• Chevy Chase at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Short Bio
• Discography at the Wayback Machine (archived January 14, 2008)