Andy Kaufman

Celebrity

  • Birth Name: Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman
  • Birth Place: New York, NY
  • Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 01/17/1949, Capricorn
  • Date of Death: 05/16/1984
  • Profession: Actor; comedian
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Andy Kaufman Fast Facts:
  • While studying at Boston's Grahm Junior College, starred in his own campus TV show, Uncle Andy's Funhouse.
  • In 1969, he and girlfriend Martha Bellu gave up for adoption the only child the comedian would ever have. The girl, Maria Bellu, only discovered the identity of her biological father several years after his death.
  • Despite getting his start on Saturday Night Live in the show's late-'70s heyday, he was banned from the program years later as the result of a rare viewer phone-in poll.
  • Rose to fame playing beloved mechanic Latka Gravas on the classic sitcom Taxi (1978-83).
  • At the curtain of a sold-out 1979 Carnegie Hall performance, invited the entire audience to load onto buses and join him for a midnight snack of milk and cookies.
  • Famously offered $1,000 to any woman who could pin him in a wrestling match, and took on over 400 female challengers without ever being defeated.
  • Publicly feuded with professional wrestler Jerry "The King" Lawler after Lawler challenged him to a match. Years after Kaufman's death, it was revealed to be an elaborate hoax.
  • Died of lung cancer at the age of 35, though he had never smoked cigarettes; at the time, many considered his death to be just another stunt.
  • Was the subject of 1992 R.E.M. song "Man on the Moon," and was portrayed by Jim Carrey in the 1999 film of the same name.
  • Andy Kaufman Relationships:
  • Stanley Kaufman - Father
  • Janice Kaufman - Mother
  • Michael Kaufman - Brother
  • Carol Kaufman Kerman - Sister
  • Elayne Boosler - Ex-significant Other
  • Lynne Margulies - Significant Other
  • Maria Bellu-Colonna - Daughter
  • Martha Bellu - Ex-significant Other
  • Kathie Sullivan - Ex-significant Other
  • Andy Kaufman Awards:
  • 1979 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television - Nominee
  • 1981 Golden Globe: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television - Nominee
  • College:
  • Grahm Junior College, Boston, MA (1971)
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