FW

Fred Willard has died.  I'm sorry I never got to meet him--I've been a big fan for a long time.

He worked in Second City in the 1960s (with Robert Klein and David Steinberg--wish I'd seen that cast).  He often played fatuous, overconfident people.  He came out west to form the Ace Trucking Company, a comedy group that regularly appeared on TV variety shows.  I remember a number of those performances.

In 1977, he got his greatest role on fake talk show Fernwood Tonight (later to be America 2-Night)--Jerry Hubbard, sidekick to Martin Mull's host Barth Gimble.  Hubbard, completely empty-headed, was brimming over with confidence that he could handle anything.  If the Emmys recognized genius, he would have won an award for this role.

Willard was famous (and funny) enough to host Saturday Night Live, appearing in the cult classic sketch where a man (Willard) invests all his money in a Scotch Tape store.

Over the years he appeared in countless movies and TV shows--he might not have been that well known to the public, but comedy connoisseurs loved him.  He perhaps got some notoriety for a recurring role as Martin Mull's lover on Roseanne--they eventually married (in an episode that aired in 1995).

An important association was with another improviser from the old days, Christopher Guest.  Willard appeared in a number of Guest-related improvisatory films, starting with This Is Spinal Tap and including Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show.  That last title is the most notable--his part is small (shot in a couple days) but as the clueless announcer at the dog show Willard steals the film.  In some ways, it's a follow-up to Jerry Hubbard.  If the Oscars recognized genius, he would have won an award for this role.

In later years, he played certain recurring roles that got him a lot of attention (and also, finally, some Emmy nominations)--Hank in Everyone Loves Raymond and Phil Dunphy's father Frank in Modern Family.  I thought he did a great job as Frank, and had plenty of fine performances left in him.  Sorry to see him go.