Early life

Grodin was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Orthodox Jewish parents, Lena (née Singer), who worked in the family store and volunteered for disabled veterans, and Theodore I. Grodin, who sold wholesale supplies. His maternal grandfather was an immigrant from Russia who "came from a long line of rabbis" and moved to Pittsburgh at the turn of the 20th century. Grodin has an older brother, Jack.

Grodin attended the University of Miami but left without graduating to pursue acting.

Career

Early career-1950s/1960s

Grodin's film debut was an uncredited bit part in Disney's 1954 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A student of Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, he made his Broadway debut in a production of Tchin-Tchin, opposite Anthony Quinn. In 1965, he became an assistant to director Gene Saks and appeared on several television series including The Virginian.

Grodin had a small part playing an obstetrician in the 1968 horror film, Rosemary's Baby. In 1964, he played Matt Stevens on the ABC soap opera the Young Marrieds. During the late 1960s, he also co-wrote and directed Hooray! It's a Glorious Day...and All That, a Broadway play, and directed Lovers and Other Strangers and Thieves, also on Broadway. He also directed Simon and Garfunkel's television special Songs of America in 1969. However, he turned down the part of Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate because of the low salary offered by producer Lawrence Turman, although Turman assured him that the part would make him a star, as it ultimately did for Dustin Hoffman.

1970s & 1980s film work

After a supporting role in the 1970 comedy film Catch-22, Grodin gained recognition as a comedy actor when he played the lead role in the 1972 film The Heartbreak Kid. Grodin subsequently appeared in several films during the decade, including 11 Harrowhouse in 1974, the 1976 version of King Kong and the hit 1978 comedy Heaven Can Wait. During the 1970s, he also frequently appeared on Broadway and was involved in producing several plays.

In 1981, he landed in a role in The Great Muppet Caper playing Nicky Holiday, a jewel thief who falls in love with Miss Piggy. He also appeared that same year opposite Lily Tomlin in The Incredible Shrinking Woman. His 1980s roles included Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times (opposite Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn) and 1988's well-reviewed comedy Midnight Run, a buddy movie co-starring Robert De Niro. Grodin also appeared in the 1986 CBS mini-series sendup Fresno, playing the evil son of a raisin matriarch (Carol Burnett).

His Hollywood film roles of the 1980s usually saw him cast as uptight, bland and world-weary white collar professionals, such as a psychiatrist having a nervous breakdown (The Couch Trip), a health conscious accountant (Midnight Run), an ineffectual advertising executive (Taking Care of Business), and a lonely, socially awkward nerd (The Lonely Guy). He was cast against this type as a scheming CIA agent in Ishtar.

Commenting on his work with regard to Ishtar, Hal Hinson in the Washington Post observed: "Grodin has a one-of-a-kind quality on the screen, a sort of inspired spinelessness. And with his cat-burglar rhythms - he seems to play all his scenes as if someone were asleep in the next room - he's become a very sly scene-stealer." Sandra Brennan at Rovi noted that: "Whereas many funnymen have been popular for their ability to overreact and mug their way around everyday obstacles, Grodin belonged, from the beginning, to the Bob Newhart school of wry comedy that values understatement and subtlety."

Aside from his film work, he was a frequent presence on television. In 1977, Grodin hosted an episode of the NBC sketch show, Saturday Night Live, where the entire episode revolved around his forgetting that the show was live, and he proceeded to wreck sketches because of his failure to prepare accordingly. His many talk show appearances from the 1970s to the present have often included confrontational and mock angry segments. At one time Johnny Carson "banned" him from The Tonight Show appearances after taking offense at things Grodin had said. The NBC network would receive angry letters from viewers who didn't understand the joke, that he was playing a persona, trying to be as different from typical talk show guests as possible. His appearances on Late Night With David Letterman would sometimes erupt into shouting and name-calling, but Letterman always enjoyed Grodin's segments.

1990s and recent return to acting

Grodin's career took a turn in 1992, when he played the nervous family man George Newton in the kids' comedy Beethoven, opposite Bonnie Hunt. The film was a box-office hit, and he reprised the role in the 1993 sequel, Beethoven's 2nd. After a supporting role in the acclaimed comedy Dave in 1993, his next film role was in 1994's It Runs in the Family (a.k.a. My Summer Story), which received only a limited release and was a sequel to the film A Christmas Story. Grodin portrayed the frustrated uncle, alongside Martin Short, in the 1994 comedy Clifford. After a 12-year-long hiatus from film, Grodin returned to acting in the Zach Braff comedy The Ex (2006).

Grodin made more frequent acting appearances in the 2010s. After guest starring on television shows such as The Michael J. Fox Show and starring in a recurring role on Louie, Grodin had several supporting roles in films, including Barry Levinson's The Humbling and Noah Baumbach's While We're Young.

Radio talk show host

From 1995 to 1998, Grodin hosted his own issues-oriented talk show, The Charles Grodin Show, on CNBC and, starting in 2000, became a political commentator for 60 Minutes II. In 2004, Grodin wrote The Right Kind of People, an Off-Broadway play about co-op boards in certain buildings in Manhattan. Grodin's commentaries continue to be heard on New York City radio station WCBS and other affiliates of the CBS Radio Network, as well as on the CBS Radio Network's Weekend Roundup.

Author

He is also a best-selling author; his works include It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here, Just When I Thought I'd Heard Everything: Humorous Observations on Life in America and How I Get Through Life. His book, If I Only Knew Then...Learning from Our Mistakes was released in November 2007 by Springboard Press. It is a collection of essays from his famous friends (and friends of friends), with all author proceeds going to the Help USA charity. His book How I Got To Be Whoever It Is I Am came out in April 2009.

Personal life

Grodin has two children: daughter Marion (a comedian), from his marriage to Julie Ferguson, and son, Nicholas, from his marriage to Elissa Durwood. For a period in the 2000s, Grodin gave up show business to be a stay-at-home dad to his children.

Awards

Year	Award	Film / Program	Role / credit	Won / nominated (W/N)
1972	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	The Heartbreak Kid	Lenny Cantrow	N
1978	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program	The Paul Simon Special	writing credit	W
1980	Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor	Seems Like Old Times'	Ira Parks	N
1988	Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor	Midnight Run	Jonathan Mardukas	W
1993	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor	Heart and Souls	Harrison Winslow	N
1993	American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture	Dave	Murray Blum	W
2006	William Kunstler Award for Racial Justice			W

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1954	20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Drummer Boy	Uncredited
1958	Armstrong Circle Theatre	Phelps	Episode: "The Nautilus"
1960	Have Gun - Will Travel	Proctor's Henchman	Episode: "Fogg Bound"
1961	The Defenders	Thomas Martin	Episode: "The Apostle"
1964	The Young Marrieds	Matt Crane Stevens #2
	Sex and the College Girl	Bob
1965	My Mother the Car	Fred	Episode: "Burned at the Steak"
	The Trials of O'Brien	Peter Farnum	Episode: "Picture Me a Murder"
1966	Felony Squad	Edgar	Episode: "Penny Game, a Two-Bit Murder"
	Shane	Jed	2 episodes
1967	The Iron Horse	Alex	Episode: "The Pembrooke Blood"
	The F.B.I.	Carl Platt	Episode: "Sky on Fire"
	Captain Nice	News Vendor	Episode: "One Rotten Apple"
	The Virginian	Arnie Doud	Episode: "The Reckoning"
	The Guns of Will Sonnett	Bells Pickering	Episode: "A Bell for Jeff Sonnett"
	N.Y.P.D.	Joey Diamond	Episode: "Money Man"
1968	The Big Valley	Mark Dunigan	Episode: "The Good Thieves"
	Rosemary's Baby	Dr. C.C. Hill
1969	Judd, for the Defense	Dist. Atty. Tom Durant	Episode: "An Elephant in a Cigar Box"
	Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America	Himself	Director, producer
1970	Catch-22	Capt. Aarfy Aardvark
1972	The Heartbreak Kid	Lenny Cantrow	Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1974	11 Harrowhouse	Howard R. Chesser	Writer
	Paradise		Co-director
1976	King Kong	Fred Wilson
1977	Thieves	Martin Cramer
	The Paul Simon Special		Writer Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program
1978	Heaven Can Wait	Tony Abbott
	Just Me and You	Michael Lindsay
1979	Sunburn	Jake
	Real Life	Warren Yeager
1980	Seems Like Old Times	Dist. Atty. Ira J. Parks	Nominated — Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor
	It's My Turn	Homer
1981	The Great Muppet Caper	Nicky Holiday
	The Incredible Shrinking Woman	Vance Kramer
1984	The Woman in Red	Buddy
	The Lonely Guy	Warren Evans
1985	Movers & Shakers	Herb Derman	Writer, producer
1986	Last Resort	George Lollar
	Fresno	Cane Kensington	Miniseries
1987	Ishtar	Jim Harrison
	American Playhouse	Lord Fancourt Babberly	Episode: "Charley's Aunt"
1988	The Couch Trip	George Maitlin
	You Can't Hurry Love	Mr. Glerman
	Midnight Run	Jonathan Mardukas	Valladolid International Film Festival Award for Best Actor
1989	Cranium Command	Left Brain
1990	Taking Care of Business	Spencer Barnes
	The Magical World of Disney	Quentin Fitzwaller	Episode: "The Muppets at Walt Disney World"
1992	Beethoven	George Newton
1993	Beethoven's 2nd	George Newton
	Heart and Souls	Harrison Winslow	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
	So I Married an Axe Murderer	Commandeered Driver
	Dave	Murray Blum	American Comedy Award for Funniest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
1994	My Summer Story	Mr. Parker (The Old Man)
	Clifford	Martin Daniels
1995-98	The Charles Grodin Show	Host
2000	60 Minutes II	Correspondent
2006	The Ex	Bob Kowalski
2012	Law & Order: SVU	Brett Forrester	Episode: "Lessons Learned"
2013	The Michael J. Fox Show	Steve Henry	Episode: "Thanksgiving"
	Brazzaville Teen-Ager	Father	Short film
2014	The Humbling	Jerry
	While We're Young	Leslie
2014-15	Louie	Dr. Bigelow	5 episodes
2015	Waiting for Ishtar	Himself	Documentary
2016	Madoff	Carl Shapiro	Miniseries

Works or publications

Plays

• Grodin, Charles. Price of Fame: A Play. New York: Samuel French, 1991. ISBN 978-0-573-69220-8.
• Grodin, Charles. One of the All-Time Greats: A Comedy. New York: S. French, 1992. ISBN 978-0-573-69366-3.
• Grodin, Charles. The Right Kind of People. New York: Samuel French, 2008. ISBN 978-0-573-65107-6.

Books

• Grodin, Charles. It Would Be so Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business. New York: Morrow, 1989. ISBN 978-0-679-73134-4.
• Grodin, Charles. How I Get Through Life: A Wise and Witty Guide. New York: Morrow, 1992. ISBN 978-0-688-11258-5.
• Grodin, Charles. We're Ready for You, Mr. Grodin: Behind the Scenes at Talk Shows, Movies, and Elsewhere. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994. ISBN 978-0-025-45795-9.
• Grodin, Charles. I Like It Better When You're Funny: Working in Television and Other Precarious Adventures. New York: Random House, 2002. ISBN 978-0-375-50784-7.
• Grodin, Charles. If I Only Knew Then... Learning from Our Mistakes. New York: Springboard Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-446-58115-8.
• Grodin, Charles. How I Got to Be Whoever It Is I Am. New York: Springboard Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-446-51940-3.
• Grodin, Charles. Just When I Thought I'd Heard Everything: Humorous Observations on Life in America. Santa Monica, Calif: Homina Publishing, 2013. ISBN 978-0-970-44999-3.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]