Poster: owepar
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(Bill McNeal)
"The role of Bill McNeal fits the mold of a radio news anchor with the typical stiff delivery," says Phil Hartman. "However, in real life he is a 'smoothy,' very bright and yet very manipulative, a passive-aggressive personality who enjoys playing office politics. The fun of playing him is the joy of looking at human foibles."
"I've done a tremendous amount of voice-over work," the actor continues, "and although I've never directly worked in radio, I think if my professional life took a different path I could have easily ended up being a 'morning drive' man."
Hartman, who was born in Brantford, Ontario, grew up in Connecticut and Southern California as one of eight children. He became a United States citizen in 1990. Hartman studied graphic design at California State University at Northridge and went on to design album covers for leading recording artists while participating in various comedy workshops.
The real turning point in Hartman's career came in 1975 when he joined The Groundlings, the famed Los Angeles comedy group. In 1978 he began working with fellow Groundling performer Paul Reubens, now known as Pee-Wee Herman, which later led to Hartman's co-writing credit on the feature film "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure."
The actor/comedian joined the cast of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for the 1986-87 season. His work over seven years with the series was highlighted by his extensive repertoire of characterizations and impressions of personalities such as Frank Sinatra, President Bill Clinton, Jack Nicholson, Phil Donahue, Ronald Reagan, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Ed McMahon, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Hartman has starred in numerous feature films, including "Greedy" with Michael J. Fox and Kirk Douglas, "House Guest," "Blind Date," "Three Amigos," "Coneheads," "Fletch Lives," "Quick Change," "So I Married an Axe Murderer," and "Sgt. Bilko" with Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd. Hartman recently completed production on "Jingle All the Way," in which he co-stars with Arnold Schwarzenegger, scheduled for a Christmas '96 release.
During his rare time off-camera, Hartman enjoys flying lessons, sailing, scuba diving, golf and skiing. Phil Hartman's birthday is September 24.
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