Nickname:	Andy Kaufman / Baji Kimran / Tony Clifton /
Known for:	Heartbeeps, In God We Tru$t, God Told Me To
Birth name:	Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman
Birthday:	17 January 1949, New York, New York, USA
Height:	6' (1.83 m)

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Free Image Hosting - Upload your favorite celebrity pictures. "Taxi" (1978) co-star Jeff Conaway decked him after the 1979 Golden Globes, when he insulted his co-stars. Attended Boston's Grahm Junior College. Daughter, Maria Colonna, was born when Andy was 20, and his girlfriend was 17. Of all Elvis Presley impersonators, he was the REAL Elvis' favorite. According to Jim Carrey as stated in A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman (1995) (TV), 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. 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. Although he died of lung cancer, he led a very healthy lifestyle. 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. 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 1982-83. Kaufman and Jerry Lawler's famous feud, including their infamous "Late Night with David Letterman" (1982) appearance, was all later confirmed by Lawler to be a setup and not real as many believed. Shared the same birthday with Jim Carrey, who plays him in the film Man on the Moon (1999). Despite having his neck broken by Jerry Lawler's Piledriver, he still won the match they had (the Piledriver was illegal where they were wrestling, so Lawler had gotten disqualified, giving Kaufman the win). Diagnosed with a rare, large-cell, carcinoma lung cancer on December 11, 1983. According to wrestler Jerry Lawler, when they cleaned out Andy's house after his death, many uncashed checks from Mid-South Wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett were found. These were given as payment for his stint as a wrestler, and made many conclude that he didn't wrestle for the money, but rather for the love of it. His style of entertainment is now known as "performance art." He was the original creator of the format TV show Andy's Funhouse (1979) (TV) which has later re-vamped by Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman) into "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986). Reubens got permission from Kaufman himself right before his death. On the DVD "Best of R.E.M., The" (2003), Kaufman appears on the videos "The Great Beyond" (originally released in 1999), and "Man On The Moon" (originally released in 1992). Was working on a novel loosely based on his life that weaves in and out of reality titled The Huey Williams Story but had to stop because of his illness. One of his most famous performances was on the 1975 summer replacement show "Van Dyke and Company" (1976), hosted by Dick Van Dyke. As his "Foreign Man", he did two very poor celebrity impressions, and then broke into a dead solid perfect impression of Elvis Presley. After the audience gave him thunderous applause, he replied, in his "Foreign Man" voice, "Thenk yew veddy much!" The audience went into hysterics. Was the world's very first inter-gender wrestling champ. Had a perfect undefeated track record and took home the belt. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 441-442. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. Scored a zero on the psychological portion of his Army entrance test, thereby classifying him as ineligible for military service. Despite their publicized, but fake, feud, Kaufman was actually a great admirer of Jerry Lawler. Son of Stanley Kaufman.

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