A more detailed obit
Rodney Dangerfield
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Though he had a talent for biting commentary, veteran comic Rodney Dangerfield was known for his "I get no respect" shtick: "I know I'm ugly. Every time my old man wanted sex, my mother showed him my picture."
Born Jacob Cohen, the native New Yorker made friends in school by being the class clown. At 19, he adopted the name Jack Roy and landed his first professional job in show business as a stand-up comedian. He worked at a resort in the Catskills and earned $12 a week plus room and board.
After Dangerfield wed nightclub singer Joyce Indig in 1948, he decided to settle down and take a regular job as a house painter and aluminum siding salesman. The couple moved to Englewood, N.J., and had two children, but their marriage eventually deteriorated. They divorced in 1962, remarried a year later then divorced again. He married Joan Child, a flower importer, in 1993.
Life in the suburbs didn't sit well with Dangerfield. He missed being in the spotlight and making audiences laugh with his self-deprecating brand of humor. So at 42, he adopted the name Rodney Dangerfield and returned to stand-up. But when his first wife died, Dangerfield became a single parent. To stay closer to home, he opened the New York nightclub Dangerfield's, where he produced comedy shows for HBO and introduced comedians like Tim Allen, Roseanne Barr, Jim Carrey, Jeff Foxworthy, Sam Kinison, Jerry Seinfeld and Rita Rudner to television audiences.
For the next two decades, Dangerfield traveled the country and headlined in Las Vegas. He also appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" 16 times and on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 70 times. The comic made his film debut in the 1971 flick "The Projectionist," but his breakthrough role was playing Al Czervik in the 1980 comedy "Caddyshack." Dangerfield then wrote and/or starred in more than a dozen pictures, including "Easy Money," "Back to School," "Ladybugs," "Little Nicky" and "The 4th Tenor." His dramatic turn as the sadistic father in Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" stunned audiences.
Despite his popularity and years of experience, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected Dangerfield's application for membership in 1995. In response, he launched a Website and asked his fans for suggestions on how to reply to the snub. The public outcry was so great that the Academy changed its decision and offered a membership to Dangerfield. He declined.
Dangerfield's 2004 autobiography, "It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex," has been optioned by 20th Century Fox Studios. He won a Grammy Award in 1981 for his comedy album "No Respect," and received a Lifetime Creative Achievement Award in 1994 from the American Comedy Awards. His trademark white shirt and red tie are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
Dangerfield died on Oct. 5 from complications of heart surgery. He was 82.
