Wilford Brimley
Wilford Brimley | |
|---|---|
| Born | Allen Wilford Brimley |
Allen Wilford Brimley (September 27 1934) is an American character actor.
Biography
Career
Brimley became famous late in life for appearing in such films as The Hotel New Hampshire, John Carpenter's The Thing and most famously in Cocoon. He often plays a gruff or stodgy old man, notably on the 1980s drama series Our House. His first characterization was in Absence of Malice, in which he played a small but key role as a curmudgeonly, outspoken James A. Wells, Assistant U.S. Attorney General. He expanded on this characterization in The Natural, as the world-weary manager of a hapless baseball team. He is known to Star Wars fans as Noa Briqualon in George Lucas' 1985 made-for-TV movie Ewoks: The Battle for Endor.
In a change from his "good guy" roles such as those in Our House, he played William Devasher, the ominous head of security for Bendini, Lambert & Locke in 1993's Tom Cruise film, The Firm, based on the novel by John Grisham.
Brimley is also well known for his appearances on commercials, namely a series of commercials he did for Quaker Oats Oatmeal throughout the 1980s and '90s. The Quaker commercials were famous for their slogan: "It's the right thing to do." He also made an appearance on Seinfeld as the U.S. Postmaster General, a takeoff on his role of U.S. Assistant Attorney General in Absence of Malice.
Brimley, a diabetic, has made a series of commercials for the diabetes testing-supplies company Liberty Medical—Brimley admonishes viewers to "check your blood sugar and check it often."
Personal life
Brimley was born in Salt Lake City to a father who worked as a real estate broker.[1] He is a Latter-day Saint.[2] Outside of film and advertisements, Brimley is also known as an activist opposed to the banning of cockfighting. He has campaigned in Arizona and New Mexico against laws banning cockfighting.[3] Wilford currently resides on a ranch back where in his home town. He is also a blacksmith.[citation needed]
He has also been diagnosed with diabetes.
Brimley in popular culture
Brimley's distinctive appearance and manner of speech have lead to a number of parodies over the years.On Saturday Night Live, he was played by John Goodman.
On the Internet, the commercial parodies mostly focus on Brimley's pronunciation of diabetes, phonetically translating it as "diabeetus" or "diabeetis".
In the Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert had a sketch where he plays the voice of Wilford Brimley. In the sketch, "Wilford" calls Colbert very early in the morning, waking him up, having nonsensical conversations, and giving him ideas for Colbert's show. In another sketch "Wilford" calls from Mexico to borrow money to pay his cockfighting debts, but ends when one of the birds attacks his eyes. In the television series Strangers With Candy, Colbert-as-Brimley makes a cameo in the episode Who Wants Cake? as the gruff narrator of the educational audio tape "Retardation: A Celebration." Colbert look alike with an eagle showed up in a recent episode.
In the short-lived sketch comedy program The Ben Stiller Show, several sketches involve a Brimley-like character pitching "Grady's Oats," a take-off on the actor's Quaker Oats ads. This depiction, contrasting strongly with the staid Brimley, has the pitchman talking to imaginary oat buds and menacing children in his back yard with a pistol.
During the era of his appearances in commercials for Quaker Oats, the Imus in the Morning radio show did parodies of Brimley's commercials, most of which ended with the sound of the Brimley character unzipping his fly as he proceeded to "plop that thing into a heaping bowl of warm Quaker Oats". His Quaker Oats commercial was parodied on the Canadian sketch show, Royal Canadian Air Farce.
Wilford Brimley has also been the subject of some of Greg Gutfeld's drawings on his late-night Fox News talk show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.
His cockfighting activism and specifically this Wikipedia page was referenced in the TV show The Knights of Prosperity in the "Operation: Steal the Safe" episode.