Profile of Harry Shearer on Famous Like Me

Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943, Los Angeles, California) is an American comedic actor and writer who began his career as a child actor in 1950s movies (The Robe) and television (The Jack Benny Program). Shearer played Eddie Haskell in the pilot for the TV series Leave It to Beaver.

Shearer was later a member of Los Angeles radio comedy group The Credibility Gap, 1968–1974, and regular on Saturday Night Live in the 1979–1980 and 1984–1985 seasons. Shearer co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in Rob Reiner's 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap with Michael McKean and Christopher Guest; the three of them also collaborated on the acclaimed 2003 spoof A Mighty Wind, which was written by Guest and Eugene Levy, and directed by Guest.

Shearer's television work also includes two specials for Cinemax, "It's Just TV", and "This Week Indoors" (co-created with Merrill Markoe) and "The Magic of Live". He directed the entire six-episode HBO series, "The History of White People in America", co-created by Martin Mull and Allen Rucker, as well as the two-hour feature finale of the series, "Portrait of a White Marriage". He also co-wrote and directed Paul Shaffer's fantasy special for HBO, "Viva Shaf Vegas" (with Shaffer and Tom Leopold). His first theatrical feature, which he wrote and directed, was "Teddy Bears' Picnic", a dark comedy loosely based on the workings of Bohemian Grove, the secret retreat of the elite.

Shearer has two books published, "Man Bites Town" (a collection of his Los Angeles Times Magazine columns) and "It's the Stupidity, Stupid". As of 2005, he is finishing work on a comic novel about Native Americans and gambling called "Not Enough Indians".

Shearer is probably best known for his prolific work as a voice actor on The Simpsons (1989 to date), where he does the voices of Mr. Burns, Waylon Smithers, Ned Flanders, Reverend Timothy Lovejoy, Kent Brockman, Dr. Julius Hibbert, and Principal Seymour Skinner, among others. He was one of three Simpsons vocalists to guest star on the show Friends; the other two were Dan Castellaneta and Hank Azaria.

Since 1983 Shearer has been the host of the public radio comedy/music program Le Show on NPR. He is the regular announcer for TV Land and, since mid-2004, for KIRO-AM radio in Seattle. Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post. Shearer has homes in both Santa Monica, California and the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. According to a telephone call on Ask Mr. KABC, his house survived Hurricane Katrina and he is alive and well.

Since 1993, Shearer has been married to singer-songwriter Judith Owen.

Filmography

• Chicken Little (2005) (filming)
• A Mighty Wind (2003)
• Teddy Bears' Picnic (2002)
• Haunted Castle (2001)

• Out There (2001)
• Haiku Tunnel (2001)
• Catching Up with Marty DiBergi (2000) (V)
• Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big (2000)
• Dick (1999)
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999)
• Encounter in the Thrid Dimension (1999)
• Edtv (1999)
• Small Soldiers (1998) (voice)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• Almost Heroes (1998)
• Godzilla (1998)

• My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)
• State of the Union: Undressed (1996) (TV)
• Blazing Dragons (1996) (VG)
• The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show (1995) (TV)
• Sliders (1995) (TV) (uncredited)
• The News Hole (1995) TV Series
• Speechless (1994)
• Little Giants (1994)
• I'll Do Anything (1994)
• Wayne's World 2 (1993)
• Comic Relief: Baseball Relief '93 (1993) (TV)
• A League of Their Own (1992)
• Spinal Tap: Break Like the Wind - The Videos (1992) (V) (as Derek Smalls)
• The Fisher King (1991)
• Blood and Concrete (1991)
• Pure Luck (1991)
• Oscar (1991/I)
• Sunday Best (1991) TV Series
• Hometown Boy Makes Good (1990) (TV)
• The Simpsons (1989 - present)
• My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988)
• Plain Clothes (1988)
• Portrait of a White Marriage (1988)
• Spaceballs (1987) (uncredited)
• Spitting Image: The Ronnie and Nancy Show (1987) (TV)
• Flicks (1987) (voice)

• The History of White People in America: Volume II (1986) (TV)
• Spitting Image: Down and Out in the White House (1986) (TV)
• Viva Shaf Vegas (1986) (TV)
• The History of White People in America (1985) (TV)
• This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
• The Right Stuff (1983)
• Million Dollar Infield (1982) (TV)
• "Likely Stories, Vol. 1" (1981) TV Series
• One Trick Pony (1980)
• Loose Shoes (1980)
• Animalympics (1980)
• "Saturday Night Live" (1979-1980, 1984-1985)
• The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)
• The T.V. Show (1979) (TV)
• Real Life (1979)
• Cracking Up (1977)
• American Raspberry (1977)
• Serpico: The Deadly Game (1976) (TV)
• The Jack Benny Program (1955) (guest voice) TV Series - Harry Beaver
• The Jack Benny Program (1953) (guest voice) TV Series - Jack as a Child
• The Robe (1953) (uncredited)
• Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) (uncredited)

Books by Harry Shearer

• (1993) Man Bites Town. St Martins Pr. ISBN 0312088426.
• (1999) It's the Stupidity, Stupid : Why (Some) People Hate Clinton and Why the Rest of Us Have to Watch (Library of Contemporary Thought). Ballantine Books. ISBN 0345434013.

External links

• HarryShearer.com
• Harry Shearer at the Internet Movie Database

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