Andy Kaufman Net Worth

Andy Kaufman's Quotes

• There's no way to describe what I do. It's just me.
• There's no drama like wrestling.
• Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It's the real performers on the street who can hold people's attention and keep them from walking away.
• Whenever I play a role, whether it's good or bad, an evil person or nice person, I believe in being a purist and going all the way with the role. If I'm going to be a villainous wrestler, I believe in going all the way with it and not breaking character and not giving away to the audience that I'm playing a role. I believe in playing it straight to the hilt.
• They say, "Oh wow, Andy Kaufman, he's a really funny guy." But I'm not trying to be funny. I just want to play with their heads.

Interesting Facts about Andy Kaufman

1. Taxi (1978) co-star Jeff Conaway decked him after the 1979 Golden Globes, when he insulted his co-stars.
2. Graduated from Great Neck North High School in 1967.
3. Attended Boston's Grahm Junior College.
4. Saturday Night Live (1975) viewers voted him off the show forever in a call-in poll in 1982.
5. Daughter, Maria Colonna, was born when Andy was 20, and his girlfriend was 17.
6. Maria was put up for adoption, but later reunited with Kaufman's family, after tracing her biological parents in 1992.
7. Of all Elvis Presley impersonators, he was the REAL Elvis' favorite.
8. R.E.M. wrote a song about him for their 1992 album "Automatic for the People" called "Man on the Moon".
9. According to Jim Carrey as stated in A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman (1995), Kaufman created and originally played the "Tony Clifton" character. The secret kept for 15 years (according to Carrey) was that he did so only briefly and the character was soon passed off to Bob Zmuda (Kaufman's writer). Most of the TV appearances of Tony Clifton are actually Zmuda, not Kaufman.
10. Interred at Beth David Cemetery, Elmont (Long Island), New York, USA.
11. Kaufman was renowned for bizarre stunts that were part of his stage performances, such as the time he took his entire Carnegie Hall audience out for milk and cookies, via 35 waiting buses.
12. Museum of TV and Radio presented 90-minute film of Kaufman highlights to honor him posthumously in New York and L.A. in October 1999.
13. Although he died of lung cancer at age 35, he led a very healthy lifestyle and was in good health up to less than one year before his death in May 1984. He didn't drink regularly and was a vegetarian. Although he had smoked when he was younger, he hadn't done so in years; even when doing his Tony Clifton character, he never inhaled the smoke. Kaufman speculated that he may have developed lung cancer through second-hand smoke while performing in nightclubs and concert halls throughout his career when in-door public smoking was still legal during that time.
14. Along with his writing partner Bob Zmuda, he wrote "The Tony Clifton Story", a full-length feature film about the adventures of his alter-ego Tony Clifton. However after his movie Heartbeeps (1981) tanked at the box office, it was scrapped by the studios.
15. When trying to bring his wrestling women act into the world of mainstream pro wrestling, Kaufman wanted to wrestle at Madison Square Garden for the World Wrestling Federation, but his good friend Bill Apter, a head editor for several wrestling magazines, told him that Vincent McMahon would never go for such a thing, so they tried to talk to Apter's friend Jerry Lawler, which led to Andy's infamous feud with Lawler from 1982-1983.
16. Many people doubted Kaufman's death, thinking it was just another gag.
17. Kaufman and Jerry Lawler's famous feud, including their infamous [error] appearance, was all later confirmed by Lawler to be a setup and not real as many believed.
18. Lip-synched the "Mighty Mouse" theme on the first episode of Saturday Night Live (1975).
19. Shared the same birthday with Jim Carrey, who plays him in the film Man on the Moon (1999).
20. Was piledriven twice by Jerry Lawler