Rich Little

Little was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the middle of three sons of Lawrence Peniston Little, a doctor, and Elizabeth Maud (née Wilson).[1] He attended Lisgar Collegiate Institute. In his early teens, he formed a partnership with Geoff Scott, another budding impressionist, concentrating on reproducing the voices of Canadian politicians such as Prime Minister John Diefenbaker and Ottawa mayor Charlotte Whitton. (Scott went on to become a politician.) He and Scott were performing professionally in night clubs by their late teens.

Little was an usher at the Elgin Movie Theatre in Ottawa, where he would perfect his voices while standing at the back of the theatre. He started his amateur acting career at Ottawa's Little Theatre, winning his first acting award at the Eastern Ontario Drama Festival in Deep River, Ontario. He went on to become a successful disc jockey, frequently incorporating impersonations into his show. In 1963, Little issued two LPs in Canada; the first, My Fellow Canadians, concentrated on Canadian political satire and featured Little and two other actors impersonating figures well-known to a Canadian audience. The second album, Scrooge and the Stars, featured Little acting out Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol entirely on his own, playing all the roles as 22 different Hollywood stars, ranging from Jack Benny to Jack Webb.

In the early 1960s, Little began hosting a radio talk-show on CJET in Smiths Falls, Ontario. His afternoon-evening shift ran from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays.[2]

On the strength of his club work and recordings, Little was asked to audition by Mel Tormé, who was working behind the scenes on a new variety show for Judy Garland. The audition won him the job, and in 1964 Little made his American television debut on CBS's The Judy Garland Show, where he imitated various male celebrities, including James Mason in A Star Is Born.[3]

In 1965, Little provided the voice for the Pink Panther in two experimental cartoons, Sink Pink and Pink Ice.

In 1966 and 1967, Little appeared in ABC-TV's Judy Carne sitcom Love on a Rooftop as the Willises' eccentric neighbour, Stan Parker. He appeared on That Girl in 1967 as a writer who impressed Marlo Thomas' character with his impersonations. He also made two memorable appearances as accident-prone Brother Paul Leonardi on The Flying Nun in 1968; it marked one of his few appearances as a character actor rather than an impressionist. In 1969 he appeared in an episode of Petticoat Junction as newly engaged fiance to Billie Jo in "Billie Jo and the Big Big Star".

Little in a publicity photo for Hawaii Five-O, 1976

Little was a frequent guest on variety and talk shows. With Johnny Carson he captured The Tonight Show host's voice and many onstage mannerisms (and later played Carson in the HBO TV-movie The Late Shift). Little's spot-on impersonation allegedly got under the thin skin of Carson and he was permanently banned from appearing on the Tonight Show without notice or reason after his August 1982 appearance, according to Little's biography, and this claim was supported by Henry Bushkin, Carson's long-time lawyer, who stated that nobody got under Carson's skin more than Little.[4] In response, Fred DeCordova, Carson's producer, said they just weren't interested in hiring him any more due to his lack of new impressions.[5]

One of his best-known impressions is of US President Richard Nixon (reprising in 1991 the role of Nixon as ideal sperm donor in Gina's fantasies on the soap opera Santa Barbara.) During the 1970s, Little made many television appearances portraying Nixon. He was a regular guest on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts in the 1970s, where he roasted celebrities such as Don Rickles,[6] Jack Benny,[7] Johnny Carson,[8] Frank Sinatra,[9] Jimmy Stewart[10] and Kirk Douglas.[11]

Little was also a semi-regular on the Emmy-winning ABC-TV variety series The Julie Andrews Hour in 1972–73. In response to his imitation of Jack Benny, the comedian sent Little an 18-carat gold money clip containing this message: "With Bob Hope doing my walk and you doing my voice, I can be a star and do nothing." He was named "Comedy Star of the Year" by the American Guild of Variety Artists in 1974.

Little's best-known continuing TV series was The Kopycats, hour-long segments of The ABC Comedy Hour, first broadcast in 1972. Taped in England, these comedy-variety shows consisted entirely of celebrity impersonations, with the actors in full costume and makeup for every sketch. The cast included Little, Frank Gorshin, Marilyn Michaels, George Kirby, British comedian Joe Baker, Fred Travalena, Charlie Callas and Peter Goodwright.

The Rich Little Show (1976) and The New You Asked for It (1981) were attempts to present Little in his own person, away from his gallery of characterizations. Little also appeared on a second season episode of The Muppet Show.[12]

In 1981 Little appeared in a comedy LP called The First Family Rides Again, which was the fourth and final of the "First Family" comedy LPs originally created by Bob Booker and Earle Doud. Little starred along with Melanie Chartoff, Michael Richards, Shelly Black, Jenilee Harrison, Earle Doud, and Vaughn Meader, making light of US President Ronald Reagan's first few months in the White House.

Little has starred in various HBO specials including the 1978 one-man show, Rich Little's Christmas Carol, in which Little portrayed famous comedians in established roles (W. C. Fields as Ebenezer Scrooge, Paul Lynde as Bob Cratchit, et al). He has also appeared in several movies and released nine albums.

Outside of any comedic context, Little's talent for impersonation has been used in movies when an actor's dialogue was impaired by poor health. When David Niven proved too ill for his voice to be used in his appearances in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Little provided the overdub as an imitation of Niven's voice. He performed similar duties to dub an imitation of James Cagney's stroke-impaired voice in the 1984 TV movie Terrible Joe Moran and in the 1991 TV special Christmas at the Movies by providing an uncredited dub for actor/dancer Gene Kelly who had lost his voice.[13]

He also lent his voice to the narration of three specials which were the forerunners for the animated series The Raccoons: The Christmas Raccoons, The Raccoons on Ice and The Raccoons and the Lost Star.[14]

In 1987, during "We the People 200: The Constitutional Gala" television special, Little personified various historical figures including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Edward R. Murrow, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Little's performance was described as eclectic, impersonating Henry Fonda as Abraham Lincoln and doing Winston Churchill giving a rousing speech.[15][16]

After the death of his friend Jimmy Stewart in the late 1990s, Rich recorded the crosswalk messages for intersections in Stewart's home town of Indiana, PA using his imitation of the star's voice.

Little was the host for the 2007 White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Although President George W. Bush was reported to have enjoyed Little's performance, it was panned by some reviewers for "his ancient jokes and impressions of dead people (Johnny Carson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan)."[17][18][19]

Little voices as a guest star in Futurama such as Futurama: Bender's Game, playing his own celebrity head: "This is Rich Little, impersonating Howard Cosell." Many times he plays a sports commentator.

As of February 2018, Little is a regular performer at the Laugh Factory in the Tropicana hotel in Las Vegas. His one-hour show is a career retrospective including video highlights from his TV career. Throughout the show, he displays many of the charcoal sketches he has drawn of the celebrities he has impersonated.

In 1998, Little was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

Little has been active in several charities including the Juvenile Diabetes Fund and the Children's Miracle Network. He has been named to Miami Children's Hospital International Pediatrics Hall of Fame and been honoured by the naming of the Rich Little Special Care Nursery at Ottawa Civic Hospital. He has been a major supporter in helping veterans through the Gary Sinise Foundation.

Little was married to Jeanne Worden from 1971 until their divorce in 1989. Jeanne had a daughter, Bria. He married Jeannette Markey in 1994; they divorced in 1997. He was married to Marie Marotta from 2003 until her death (of a deliberate overdose of sleeping pills after suffering from chronic pain)[20] in 2010. He married his fourth wife, Catherine Brown, in a private ceremony in 2012, and was divorced in October later that year. [21] Little has a daughter (Lyndsay Cottrell), born in 1988.[22]

In 1998, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.[23]

In 2010, Little became a naturalized American citizen in Las Vegas, where he was residing.[24]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rich Little.

• Official website
• Rich Little on IMDb
• Rich Little appearance on Vegas Video Network