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Dana Carvey

Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an Emmy-award winning American comedian and actor known for his work on Saturday Night Live and the spin-off movie Wayne's World.

Biography

Early life

Carvey was born in Missoula, Montana, the son of Billie, a schoolteacher, and William Carvey, a high school business teacher. Carvey is of Italian and Irish descent. His father is from Rome. Carvey is the brother of Brad Carvey, the engineer/designer of the Video Toaster. The character Garth Algar (from the movie Wayne's World) is a loosely-based portrayal of Brad. Carvey was raised Lutheran. When he was three years old, his family moved to San Carlos, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He received his first drum kit at an early age. He attended Tierra Linda Junior High in San Carlos, California, Carlmont High School in Belmont, California, College of San Mateo in San Mateo, CA, and received his Bachelor's degree in communications from San Francisco State University.

In 1979, while performing at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, he met Paula Zwaggerman, who would later become his wife. Soon after returning to the Bay Area in 1980, Dana and Paula were engaged.

Early career

He starred in Halloween II, and costarred on One of the Boys in 1982, a short-lived television sitcom that also starred Mickey Rooney, Nathan Lane, and Meg Ryan. In 1984, Carvey had a small role in Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap film, in which he played a mime, with fellow comedian Billy Crystal. He also starred in the short-lived movie-based action show Blue Thunder.

Saturday Night Live

In 1986, Carvey became a household name when he joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live. He, along with newcomers Phil Hartman, Kevin Nealon, Jan Hooks and Victoria Jackson, helped to reverse the show's declining popularity and made SNL "must-see" TV once again. His breakout character was The Church Lady, the uptight, smug, and pious host of "Church Chat." Carvey said he based the character on women he knew from his church growing up who would keep track of his and others' attendance. He became so associated with the character that later cast members like Chris Farley referred to Carvey simply as "The Lady."

Carvey's other original characters included Garth Algar (from "Wayne's World"), Hans (from "Hans and Franz"), and The Grumpy Old Man (from Weekend Update appearances). Algar is actually an affectionate caricature of Dana's brother, Brad Carvey, an accomplished electrical engineer who invented the Video Toaster, and has been said by Carvey to have fixed the family clothes dryer using only a butter knife.

During the 1992 US presidential election campaign, he did a dead-on impression of independent candidate Ross Perot; in a prime-time special before the election, Carvey played both George H. W. Bush and Perot in a three-way debate with Bill Clinton, who was played by Phil Hartman. As Perot, Carvey declined to say the show's signature "Live from New York" opening line because he was actually on tape.

Carvey left SNL in 1993. In 1992, Carvey joined Mike Myers to bring their popular "Wayne's World" sketch to the silver screen with Wayne's World the movie. A sequel was filmed and released in 1993, titled Wayne's World 2. Rumors abound that Mike Myers is writing a screenplay for Wayne's World 3 but nothing has been verified yet from either Myers' or Carvey's camp.

Carvey won an Emmy in 1993 for "Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program." He has received a total of six Emmy nominations.

Celebrity Impersonations

After SNL

NBC executives hoped to get Carvey to take over the 12:30 a.m. (ET) weeknight spot in the network's lineup in 1993 when David Letterman left his show, Late Night with David Letterman, for an 11:30 p.m. (ET) show on CBS. A big Letterman fan, Carvey rejected the offer, causing embarrassment for the network, which had publicly floated his name. The 12:30 spot eventually went to Conan O'Brien.

In 1994, Carvey starred in the film Clean Slate. The following year, in 1995, Carvey filmed his first HBO stand-up special, Critic's Choice. The show featured Carvey doing many of his SNL impersonations as well as making fun of the premium station's name, pronouncing it "huhbo".

He reprised many of his SNL characters in 1996 for The Dana Carvey Show, a critically acclaimed but short-lived prime-time variety show. The show was most notable for launching Robert Smigel's cartoon "The Ambiguously Gay Duo." In 1997, he underwent open-heart surgery for a blocked artery. Unfortunately, the doctors operated on the wrong artery. Carvey later sued for medical malpractice and was awarded $7.5 million. He has had to undergo a total of five medical procedures (four angioplasties and one surgery) to correct his heart problems. Carvey stated in an interview with Larry King that he donated all the money awarded to him from the lawsuit to charity. In 2002, he returned to the silver screen in the comedy Master of Disguise, which was panned by critics but managed about $40 million at the North American box office.

He is number 90 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.

A very private person, Carvey withdrew from the limelight to focus on his family. He later said in an interview that he doesn't want to be in a career in which his kids would already be grown with him having neglected time with them. Carvey may hold the distinction of being the only comedian ever to be imitated by a former President of the United States at the funeral of another former President of the United States. At the January 2, 2007 funeral of Gerald Ford, George H. W. Bush reminisced in his eulogy about how Ford took it in stride when SNL's Chevy Chase made Ford the object of his own imitations. Bush cited this as a valuable lesson in learning to laugh at one's self as a part of public life. "I'd tell you more about that," Bush continued, "but as Dana Carvey would say, [imitating Carvey imitating him] 'Not gonna do it! Wouldn't be prudent!'".

Recently, Carvey made a surprise appearance at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, reprising his SNL character Garth Algar with host Mike Myers for a Wayne's World sketch. On June 14, 2008, Carvey filmed a second HBO stand-up special, the first in 13 years, entitled Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies.