Garry Emmanuel Shandling (November 29, 1949 – March 24, 2016) was an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer.
Shandling began his career writing for sitcoms, such as ''
Sanford and Son'' and ''
Welcome Back, Kotter''. He made a successful stand-up performance on ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' where he became a frequent guest host. Shandling was, for a time, considered the leading contender to replace
Johnny Carson. In 1986, he created ''
It's Garry Shandling's Show'', which aired on
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global ...
. It was nominated for four
Emmy Awards (including one for Shandling) and lasted until 1990.
Shandling's second show, ''
The Larry Sanders Show'', began airing on
HBO in 1992. He was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for the show and won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1998, along with
Peter Tolan, for writing the series finale. In film, he had a recurring role in the
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appear in American comic books published ...
, appearing in ''
Iron Man 2'' and ''
Captain America: The Winter Soldier''. He also lent his voice to Verne the turtle in ''
Over the Hedge''. Shandling's final performance was as the voice of Ikki in the live-action remake of ''
The Jungle Book
''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...
'', and the film was dedicated to his memory.
During his four-decade career, Shandling was nominated for 19 Primetime Emmy Awards and two
Golden Globe Awards, along with many other awards and nominations. He served as host of the
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
s four times and as host of the
Emmy Awards two times.
Early life
Garry Emmanuel Shandling was born into a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
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, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
on November 29, 1949, the son of pet store proprietor Muriel Estelle (née Singer) and print shop owner Irving Shandling. He grew up in the Casa Loma Estates area of
Tucson, Arizona
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive ...
, having moved there with his family so that his older brother Barry could receive treatment for
cystic fibrosis.
Barry died of the disease when Shandling was 10.
After graduating from
Palo Verde High School, Shandling attended the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...
to major in
electrical engineering, but instead completed a degree in marketing and pursued a year of
postgraduate studies in creative writing.
Career
Early work
When Shandling was 19, he drove two hours to a club in
Phoenix and showed some jokes to
George Carlin, who was performing there. The next day, on a repeat round-trip, Carlin told him that he had "funny stuff on every page" and should keep at it. In 1973, he moved to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
and worked at an
advertising agency for a time, then sold a script for the popular
NBC sitcom ''
Sanford and Son''.
He also wrote scripts for the sitcom ''
Welcome Back, Kotter'' and attended a story meeting for ''
Three's Company''.
Stand-up comedy
Shandling said that he became a stand-up comedian because of an incident that happened one day at a story meeting for ''
Three's Company'', in which one of the show's producers complained about a line of dialogue and said, "Well,
Chrissy wouldn't say that." He recalled, "I just locked. I said, 'I don't think I can do this.' And I stopped right there and went on to perform."
In 1978, Shandling performed his first stand-up routine at the
Comedy Store in Los Angeles. A year later, he was one of the few performers to
cross the picket line when a group of comedians organized a boycott against the Comedy Store, protesting owner
Mitzi Shore's policy of not paying comedians to perform. According to
William Knoedelseder, Shandling "was the scion of a family with decidedly antiunion views. He had not shared the struggling comic experience. He was a successful sitcom writer trying to break into stand-up, and prior to the strike, Shore had refused to put him in the regular lineup because she didn't think he was good enough. Of course, that changed the minute he crossed the picket line."
Shandling's onstage persona was an anxiety-ridden, grimacing, guarded, confused man on the verge of losing control. After a couple of years on the road, he was booked by a talent scout from ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' to appear as a guest in 1981. Shandling substituted for Carson on a regular basis until 1987,
when he left to focus on his cable show, leaving
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2 ...
as permanent guest host and Carson's eventual successor.
In 1984, Shandling performed his first stand-up special, ''Garry Shandling: Alone in Vegas'' for
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global ...
, followed by a second televised special in 1986, ''The Garry Shandling Show: 25th Anniversary Special'', also for Showtime. In 1991, a third special, ''Garry Shandling: Stand-Up,'' was part of the ''
HBO Comedy Hour''.
Television series
''It's Garry Shandling's Show''
In 1985, Shandling and
Alan Zweibel went on to create ''
It's Garry Shandling's Show''. Through 1990, it ran for 72 episodes on
Showtime
Showtime or Show Time may refer to:
Film
* ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film
* ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur
Television Networks and channels
* Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global ...
. The edited reruns played on the
Fox network beginning in 1988.
Shandling wrote 15 of the episodes.
The series subverted the standard sitcom format by having its characters openly acknowledge that they were all part of a television series. Building on a concept that hearkened back to ''
The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show'', in which
George Burns would frequently break the "
fourth wall
The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this ''wall'', the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th cent ...
" and speak directly to the audience, Shandling's series went so far as to incorporate the audience and elements of the studio itself into the storylines, calling attention to the show's artifice.
The series was nominated for four Emmy Awards,
including one for Shandling. He won an American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performance in a Series; and four CableACE awards, two for Best Comedy Series. The show also won an award for
Outstanding Achievement in Comedy from the
Television Critics Association.
''The Larry Sanders Show''
In 1992, Shandling launched another critical and commercial success by creating the mock behind-the-scenes talk show sitcom ''
The Larry Sanders Show'', which ran for 89 episodes through to 1998 on
HBO. It garnered 56
Emmy Award nominations and three wins. Shandling based the series on his experiences guest-hosting ''
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''.
In 1993, NBC offered Shandling $5 million to take over ''
Late Night'' when
David Letterman announced his highly publicized move to
CBS, but Shandling declined.
He was subsequently offered ''
The Late Late Show
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...
'', but also declined in favor of continuing ''The Larry Sanders Show''.
Shandling wrote 38 episodes of the series and directed three in its final season. He was nominated for 18 Emmy Awards for the series:
five for acting, seven for writing, and six for being co-executive producer with
Brad Grey.
He won one Emmy Award for
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the series finale "
Flip
Flip, FLIP, or flips may refer to:
People
* Flip (nickname), a list of people
* Lil' Flip (born 1981), American rapper
* Flip Simmons, Australian actor and musician
* Flip Wilson, American comedian
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* ...
." He was also nominated for two
Golden Globe Awards for
Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) in 1994 and 1995. He won two
American Comedy Awards for Funniest Male Performance in a Comedy Series, eight
CableACE Awards, and a
BAFTA Award.
The series influenced other shows, such as ''
Entourage'', ''
30 Rock
''30 Rock'' is an American satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live'', ta ...
'', and ''
Curb Your Enthusiasm'', where guest stars portray themselves.
In 2002, ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program TV listings, listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine, TV Guide Mag ...
'' named ''The Larry Sanders Show'' as 38th Greatest Show of All Time. In 2008, ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...
'' ranked it the 28th Best Show of the past 25 years, and it was included on ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' magazine's 100 Greatest Shows of All Time.
The first season was re-released in 2007, along with a ''Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show'', Shandling's picks of the best 23 episodes.
In October 2012, Shandling returned with fellow cast members from ''The Larry Sanders Show'' for ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...
s Reunions issue, where he was reunited with co-stars
Rip Torn
Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn Jr. (February 6, 1931 – July 9, 2019) was an American actor whose career spanned more than 60 years. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his part as Marsh Turner in '' Cross Creek'' ...
,
Jeffrey Tambor,
Sarah Silverman,
Penny Johnson Jerald,
Wallace Langham and
Mary Lynn Rajskub.
Other work
Shandling hosted the
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...
s in
1990,
1991,
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
and
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...
. He hosted the
Emmy Awards in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
and
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
, and co-hosted (doing the opening monologue) in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...
.
He appeared occasionally in films, beginning with a cameo as Mr. Vertisey in ''
The Night We Never Met''. He had supporting roles in ''
Love Affair'' and ''
Mixed Nuts;'' ''
Dr. Dolittle'' (1998), as the voice of a live-action
pigeon; the
David Rabe play adaptation ''
Hurlyburly'' (1998); and ''
Trust the Man'' (2001). He wrote and starred in
Mike Nichols's ''
What Planet Are You From?'' (2000) and co-starred with
Warren Beatty and others in ''
Town & Country'' (2001).
In October 1999, Shandling, with David Rensin, published ''Confessions of a Late Night Talk Show Host: The Autobiography of Larry Sanders'', written in the voice of his alter-ego Larry Sanders.
He also appeared in a brief cameo in ''
Zoolander'' (2001). Again voicing an animal, Shandling co-starred as Verne in ''
Over the Hedge'' (2006), which became one of his best-known roles. He appeared in ''
Iron Man 2'' (2010) as Senator Stern, and reprised the role in ''
Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' (2014). He appeared in an uncredited cameo as a health inspector in ''
The Dictator'' (2012).
He starred as himself representing
Fox Mulder, alongside
Téa Leoni as
Dana Scully in ''
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation ...
''
season 7
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
spoof episode "
Hollywood A.D."
In February 2010, Shandling was staying at the same
Waipio Valley hotel that
Conan O'Brien checked into after his
departure from ''The Tonight Show''. They spent their entire vacations together, Shandling helping to rehabilitate O'Brien.
Shandling was a longtime friend of
Jerry Seinfeld. In January 2016, he appeared on Seinfeld's show ''
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee''.
Personal life
In 1977, Shandling was involved in a car crash in
Beverly Hills that left him in critical condition for two days and hospitalized for two weeks with a crushed spleen. While in the hospital, he had a
near-death experience and later said, "I had a vivid near-death experience that involved a voice asking, 'Do you want to continue leading Garry Shandling's life?' Without thinking, I said, 'Yes.' Since then, I've been stuck living in the physical world while knowing, without a doubt, that there's something much more meaningful within it all. That realization is what drives my life and work." The accident inspired him to pursue a career in comedy,
and he later turned the accident into part of his routine.
Shandling never married and had no children. He shared an apartment with his fiancée, actress
Linda Doucett, from 1987 until they split up in 1994.
He subsequently had her dismissed from ''The Larry Sanders Show'', and she filed a lawsuit against his production company
Brillstein Entertainment Partners for
sexual discrimination and wrongful termination. The case was settled out of court in 1997 for $1 million.
Shandling and
Sharon Stone were students of acting coach
Roy London and dated briefly, and she appeared on ''
The Larry Sanders Show'' in the episode "The Mr. Sharon Stone Show". They remained close friends until Shandling's death in 2016. In the documentary ''Special Thanks to Roy London'', interviews with Stone and Shandling discuss their relationship. A ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
'' article read:
Shandling preferred to reveal little about his personal life during interviews. He was a
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
who enjoyed meditating, playing basketball, and boxing four times per week.
He co-owned a boxing gym in
Santa Monica, TSB 44 (Tough Strong Bold No. 44), with actor and director
Peter Berg.
He was also a licensed amateur radio operator. Starting as a teenager, he held the callsigns WA7BKG, KD6OY, and KQ6KA. The latter he held with a pseudonym, Dave Waddell, to avoid undue attention when he operated.
Death
Shandling suffered from
hyperparathyroidism
Hyperparathyroidism is an increase in parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels in the blood. This occurs from a disorder either within the parathyroid glands ( primary hyperparathyroidism) or as response to external stimuli (secondary hyperparathyroidis ...
, a serious disease which often goes undiagnosed or untreated. If left untreated, it can lead to complications such as
osteoporosis,
high blood pressure,
kidney stones,
kidney failure,
stroke, and
cardiac arrhythmias.
On March 24, 2016, at the age of 66, he died at
Saint John's Health Center in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. The
LAPD reported that he had suddenly collapsed in his home and was rushed to the hospital, suffering from an apparent medical emergency. When paramedics arrived, he was unconscious. The autopsy showed that he died from a
pulmonary embolism.
Shandling left behind a
liquid
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, an ...
estate worth around $668,000, which was given to his lawyer and best friend Bill Isaacson, as Shandling had no family or relatives.
The bulk of his wealth, however, was held in a
private trust
A trust is a legal relationship in which the holder of a right gives it to another person or entity who must keep and use it solely for another's benefit. In the Anglo-American common law, the party who entrusts the right is known as the "settl ...
he had created.
On February 4, 2019, his estate bestowed $15.2 million to benefit medical research at the
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His gift will establish and endow the Garry Shandling Endocrine Surgery Research Fund, the Garry Shandling Infectious Diseases Innovation Fund, and the Garry Shandling Pancreatic Diseases Fund. The remainder of the bequest will establish the Garry Shandling Medical Research Fund, which will operate under the direction of the medical school's dean. In his honor, UCLA also has named the Garry Shandling Learning Studio, a multipurpose space in Geffen Hall, the school's medical education building.
Awards and nominations
During his four-decade career, Shandling was nominated for 19 Primetime Emmy Awards and two
Golden Globe Awards.
Additionally, Shandling won two
British Comedy Awards,
twelve
CableACE Awards (including eight for ''The Larry Sanders Show'' and four for ''It's Garry Shandling's Show''), a BAFTA Award
and was nominated for two
Writers Guild of America Awards for ''The Larry Sanders Show''. He received three
American Comedy Awards,
two
Satellite Award nominations, and in 2004, he was presented with the
Austin Film Festival's Outstanding Television Writer Award.
Filmography
Television
As writer
Books
* ''Confessions of a Late-Night Talk-show Host: The Autobiography of Larry Sanders'' was written in-character as Larry Sanders by Shandling with David Rensin.
It was released October 4, 1999, and was the topic of season five's episode "The Book".
*
References
External links
*
*
Garry Shandling on Charlie Rosevia Google Video (2006)
* in 2002
*
*
ttp://www.filmbug.com/db/24339 Filmbug.com: Garry Shandling*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shandling, Garry
1949 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American writers
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American writers
Amateur radio people
American Buddhists
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male television writers
American male voice actors
American stand-up comedians
American television directors
American television producers
American television talk show hosts
American television writers
American Zen Buddhists
Converts to Buddhism
Deaths from pulmonary embolism
Film producers from Arizona
Jewish American comedians
Jewish American male actors
Jewish American writers
Jewish male comedians
Male actors from Tucson, Arizona
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Screenwriters from Arizona
Showrunners
University of Arizona alumni
Writers from Tucson, Arizona
21st-century American Jews