Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman was an American performance artist and entertainer who shunned conventional joke telling and built his act around characters, stunts, and hoaxes. He first performed stand-up in clubs along the East Coast during the early 1970s, then drew a wider audience in 1975 with appearances on the first season of Saturday Night Live. His Foreign Man character became Latka Gravas on the sitcom Taxi, where he appeared from 1978 to 1983. He also performed as the obnoxiously rude lounge singer Tony Clifton and toured with unusual performance art and comedy shows. His film work included a murderous policeman in God Told Me To (1976), a televangelist in In God We Tru$t (1980), and a robot in Heartbeeps (1981). He earned Golden Globe nominations for Taxi in 1979 and 1981. In 1982 he brought his professional wrestling villain persona to Late Night with David Letterman. Kaufman died in 1984 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2023.