Early life

Whitney was born Daniel Lawrence Whitney in Pawnee City, Nebraska on February 17, 1963, where he was raised on a pig farm. He is the son of Tom Whitney, a guitarist, entertainer, and Christian minister, and Shirley Whitney. Whitney attended high school at The King's Academy in West Palm Beach, Florida, in the late 1970s through 1980 where his father was The King's Academy's elementary school principal.

Whitney graduated from Berean Christian School in West Palm Beach in 1982. He went to college at Baptist University of America, and the University of Nebraska. He credits his roommates from Texas and Georgia for inspiring his imitation Southern accent. He dropped out after his junior year after trying his hand at comedy.

Career

Radio career

Whitney started his career in radio in the early 1990s when he made regular radio appearances via phone on the nationally syndicated program, The Ron and Ron Show, as well as other radio shows such as "The Bob and Tom show" The Chris Baker Show on KDGE and KEZO's The Todd and Tyler Show in Omaha, Nebraska, as well as the Kirk, Mark, and Lopez morning show on WIYY in Baltimore, Maryland. He was also a frequent guest on The Johnny Dare Morning Show on 98.9/KQRC, Kansas City.

He also appeared on WJRR in Orlando, Florida. He was brought to New England on Greg and the Morning Buzz on WHEB 100.3 and WGIR-FM 101.1 in Portsmouth and Manchester, New Hampshire, respectively, doing two commentaries a week.

Stand-up career

He became famous after developing the Larry character, a personality that he now maintains throughout his stage act. The Larry character has a stereotypical redneck appearance and a thick Southern accent, recounts stories about his "family," and uses, among other common expressions, his own catchphrase "Git-R-Done!".

He says in interviews and in his autobiographical book GIT-R-DONE that he deliberately "turns on" the accent both on and off stage, because he may forget it if he kept his normal accent intact. He uses catchphrase humor, including "Lord, I apologize, and be with the starvin' Pygmies in New Guinea. Amen" after telling jokes of questionable taste; and, "I don't care who ya are, that's funny right there" after jokes that evoke roarious laughter.

His first two comedy albums, Lord, I Apologize (2001) and The Right to Bare Arms (2005), have both been certified gold by the RIAA. A third album, Morning Constitutions, and its accompanying TV special were released in 2007.

Other work

Whitney was roasted in a Comedy Central special on March 15, 2009.

On February 8, 2011, the première of his newest travelogue series, Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy, was broadcast on the History Channel. A total of 4.1 million viewers, 1.7 million adults 25-54, tuned in, nearly doubling the total for the "Top Shot" season 2 opener. During season two in the episode "Larry Goes To Washington", Whitney was the first on-air talent from a non-news crew allowed in the War Room, also known as the Command Center, as he explained during the program.

June 2012 Disneyland's California Adventure theme park's "Cars Land" features a ride called "Mater's Junkyard Jamboree" that features Whitney's voice as his character Mater from the Disney/Pixar Cars movies.

Bektrom Foods of North Dakota developed a line of Larry the Cable Guy food products, such as boxed hamburger dinners, with some of the proceeds from its sales benefiting the "Git-R-Done Foundation".

Personal life

Whitney resides in Lincoln, Nebraska, on a 180-acre (73 ha) farm. On July 3, 2005, he married his wife. They have two children together: a son (born August 2, 2006) and a daughter (born October 29, 2007). His hometown of Pawnee City, Nebraska, has a street named after him. Whitney also donated money to buy new theatrical equipment for the local high school.

Whitney is an avid Nebraska Cornhuskers football fan. His signature camouflage hat has the University of Nebraska-Lincoln nickname "HUSKERS" emblazoned on it which can be seen in the 2007 film Delta Farce. He is also frequently seen with a gold Nebraska "N" on a chain around his neck.

In September 2010, Whitney donated $5 million to the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando, Florida. The gift was for further development of the International Hip Dysplasia Institute at the Orlando hospital. After Dr. Chad Price at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children helped cure their son, Wyatt, of his dysplasia when he was an infant, Whitney and his wife, Cara, made private donations to the hospital and Whitney raised money through appearances on Family Feud and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?.

The hospital opened a new wing called the "Wyatt Whitney Wing" in May 2012.

Whitney is close friends with contemporary comedian Lewis Black, despite dissimilar political views, background, and material they perform in their stand-up routines.

Radio shows

Whitney was a radio personality on Blue Collar Radio on Sirius XM Radio.

Discography

Title	Album details	Peak chart positions			Certifications
		US Comedy	US Country	US
Law and Disorder	Release date: 1995 Label: Self-released	—	—	—
Salutations and Flatulations	Release date: 1997 Label: DJT Records	—	—	—
Lord, I Apologize	Release date: October 30, 2001 Label: Hip-O Records	1	53	—	US: Gold
A Very Larry Christmas	Release date: November 16, 2004 Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	8	43	US: Gold
The Right to Bare Arms	Release date: March 29, 2005 Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	1	7	US: Platinum
Morning Constitutions	Release date: April 3, 2007 Label: Warner Bros. Rec	1	5	16
Christmastime in Larryland	Release date: October 3, 2007 Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	12	42
On the CanA	Release date: July 21, 2009 Label: Warner Bros. Records	7	50	—
Tailgate Party	Release date: September 22, 2009 Label: Warner Bros. Records	1	19	71
The Best of Larry the Cable Guy	Release date: November 16, 2010 Label: Warner Bros. Records	4	72	—
Them Idiots: Whirled Tour	Release date: March 13, 2012 Label: Warner Music Nashville	1	45	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

• A Box set consisting of The Right to Bare Arms, Christmastime in Larryland, and Morning Constitutions.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Blue Collar Comedy Tour: The Movie	Himself	Documentary
2004	Larry the Cable Guy: Git-R-Done		TV movie
	Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again		TV documentary
2004-2006	Blue Collar TV	Various	46 episodes
2006	Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector	Larry	Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actor
	Cars	Mater	Voice
	Mater and the Ghostlight		Short film; voice
	Blue Collar Comedy Tour: One for the Road	Himself	TV movie
2007	Delta Farce	Larry
2008	Witless Protection	Deputy Larry Stalder	Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Actor Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple
2008-2012	Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales	Mater	11 episodes; voice
2009	The Comedy Central Roast of Larry the Cable Guy	Himself
	Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?		Episode: "3.13"
	Larry the Cable Guy's Hula-Palooza Christmas Luau		TV movie
2010	Larry the Cable Guy: Tailgate Party
2011	Cars 2	Mater	Voice
2011-2013	Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy	Himself
2012	Them Idiots: Whirled Tour
	Tooth Fairy 2	Larry Guthrie
2013	A Madea Christmas	Buddy	Nominated—Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor Nominated—Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple
2013-present	Cars Toons: Tales From Radiator Springs	Mater	2 episodes; voice
2014	WWE Raw	Himself	1 episode Nominated-Slammy Award for Raw Guest Star of the Year
2014	Jingle All the Way 2	Larry Phillips	Direct-to-video
2017	Cars 3	Mater	Voice

As producer

Year	Title	Notes
2007	Larry the Cable Guy's Christmas Spectacular	TV movie
2011-2012	Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy	19 episodes

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	Cars	Mater	Voice
2007	Cars Mater-National Championship
2009	Cars Race-O-Rama
2011	Cars 2
2012	Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure
2013	Disney Infinity
2014	Cars: Fast as Lightning
2015	Disney Infinity 3.0

[ Source: Wikipedia ]