# Fred Willard
**Fred Willard** was an American comic actor and improviser known for playing self-assured but clueless characters, first as the dimwitted sidekick Jerry Hubbard on the 1977 talk-show parody *Fernwood 2 Night* and later in the mockumentary films of [Christopher Guest](https://www.edgepedia.org/christopher-guest), including *Waiting for Guffman*, *Best in Show*, and *A Mighty Wind*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) He died on May 15, 2020, in Los Angeles at the age of 86.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard)
His birth year is given differently by reference sources: the Television Academy, Encyclopedia.com, and his own Television Academy interview list September 18, 1939, while the Roger Ebert tribute, TV Insider, and Second City's memorial give September 18, 1933.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/tributes/fred-willard-1933-2020) • [3](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/fred-willard/) All sources agree on [Shaker Heights, Ohio](https://www.edgepedia.org/shaker-heights-ohio), as his birthplace.[4](https://www.laphil.com/people/fred-willard)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | Shaker Heights, Ohio; birth year given as 1933 or 1939 in different sources; died May 15, 2020, in Los Angeles at 86[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/tributes/fred-willard-1933-2020) |
| Improv training | Hired by The Second City in Chicago in 1965 along with Robert Klein; appeared in the 18th and 19th revues, *Off the Road* and *This and That*[5](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard) |
| Signature TV role | Jerry Hubbard, co-host and sidekick to Martin Mull's Barth Gimble on *Fernwood 2 Night* (1977), rebranded *America 2 Night* in its second season[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) |
| Guest mockumentaries | *This is Spinal Tap*, *Waiting for Guffman*, *Best in Show*, *A Mighty Wind*, *For Your Consideration*, and *Mascots*[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) |
| Emmy nominations | Four: 2003, 2004, and 2005 for *Everybody Loves Raymond*, and 2010 for *Modern Family* as Frank Dunphy[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) |
| Daytime Emmy | Won in 2015 for a Special Guest performance on *The Bold and the Beautiful*[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) |
| Honors for *Best in Show* | Boston Film Critics Award, American Comedy Award, the Sierra Award, and a tribute from AFI[5](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard) |
## Early career
Willard formed a comedy act with fellow acting student Vic Grecco after moving to New York. As Willard & Grecco, the duo toured nightclubs and appeared on *The Ed Sullivan Show*, *The Steve Allen Show*, *The Tonight Show*, and *The Dean Martin Show* before splitting in the late 1960s.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) • [2](https://www.rogerebert.com/tributes/fred-willard-1933-2020) Around 1965 he moved to Chicago to spend a year with the improvisational group [The Second City](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-second-city), where he was hired alongside [Robert Klein](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-klein) and appeared in the theater's 18th and 19th revues, *Off the Road* and *This and That*, directed by Sheldon Patinkin.[5](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard) Willard later called the year "really one of the best years of my life artistically."
After Second City, he helped found the improvisational group the Ace Trucking Company, which was a regular on *The Tom Jones Show*, opened for Tom Jones in Las Vegas, and appeared on *The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) • [6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/fred-willard)
His film debut came in the exploitation film *Teenage Mother* (1967), followed by small parts in *The Harrad Experiment* (1973), *Silver Streak* (1976), and the Ace Trucking Company disaster-movie spoof *Cracking Up* (1977).[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/tributes/fred-willard-1933-2020)
## Television
Willard made his first major television impact on *Fernwood 2 Night* (1977), a [Norman Lear](https://www.edgepedia.org/norman-lear)-produced parody talk show spun off from *Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman*, set in the fictional small Ohio town of Fernwood. He played Jerry Hubbard, the affable but dimwitted co-host and sidekick to [Martin Mull](https://www.edgepedia.org/martin-mull)'s host Barth Gimble; the show was rebranded *America 2 Night* for its second season.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) • [3](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/fred-willard/) Writers Walter J. Podrazik and Harry Castleman called it the first serious attempt to poke fun at the television talk show, and it became a cult favorite.[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/willard-fred-1939)
Willard and Mull maintained a working relationship for decades. They appeared together in *The History of White People in America* specials, the 1988 film *Portrait of a White Marriage*, and even advertisements, and reunited on the sitcom *Roseanne*, where Willard played Martin Mull's gay partner in a storyline that led to one of television's first gay weddings.[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/willard-fred-1939) • [6](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/fred-willard)
On the 1987–89 political satire *D.C. Follies*, he played the bartender, the only human actor in a cast populated by puppets of presidents Reagan, Carter, Ford, and Nixon and reporters [Dan Rather](https://www.edgepedia.org/dan-rather) and [Ted Koppel](https://www.edgepedia.org/ted-koppel).[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) He was an original host of *Real People*, hosted a 1978 episode of *Saturday Night Live*, and appeared in recurring roles on *Everybody Loves Raymond*, *Ally McBeal*, *Mad About You*, *The Simpsons*, *King of the Hill*, and *Family Matters*.[8](https://www.pbs.org/weta/onstage/twain2002/bios/willard.html) • [7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/willard-fred-1939)
His Emmy nominations came in 2003, 2004, and 2005 for playing Hank on *Everybody Loves Raymond*, and in 2010 for playing Frank Dunphy, the father of [Ty Burrell](https://www.edgepedia.org/ty-burrell)'s Phil Dunphy, on *Modern Family*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard) In 2015 he won a Daytime Emmy for a Special Guest performance on the soap opera *The Bold and the Beautiful*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard)
## The Christopher Guest films
Willard's work in Guest's mockumentaries, beginning with *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984), in which he played Lieutenant Hookstratten, the military officer welcoming the band to a base, showcased his gift for playing earnest, wildly incorrect authority figures largely through on-camera improvisation.[7](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/willard-fred-1939) • [3](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/fred-willard/) The connection to Guest dated to the late 1960s, when the two co-starred in an off-Broadway production of Jules Feiffer's black comedy *Little Murders*; Guest recalled that Willard began delivering lines that were not in the play.[9](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-05-16/fred-willard-dead)
The Washington Post reported that Willard improvised virtually all of his dialogue in the Guest films.[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/fred-willard-scene-stealing-comic-actor-and-master-of-improvisation-dies-at-86/2020/05/17/7b9f54b4-9857-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html) In *Waiting for Guffman* (1996), he played Ron Albertson, a small-town travel agent with show-business ambitions, opposite [Catherine O'Hara](https://www.edgepedia.org/catherine-ohara); the film earned him an American Comedy Award nomination and a [Screen Actors Guild](https://www.edgepedia.org/screen-actors-guild) nomination for Funniest Supporting Actor.[9](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-05-16/fred-willard-dead) • [4](https://www.laphil.com/people/fred-willard)
His most celebrated performance was as Buck Laughlin, a clueless color commentator for the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in *Best in Show* (2000), delivering improvised interstitial remarks to his prim British co-commentator. The role won him the Boston Film Critics Award, an American Comedy Award, the Sierra Award, and a tribute from AFI.[9](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-05-16/fred-willard-dead) • [5](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard) He continued with the Guest repertory through *A Mighty Wind* (2003), where his former-television-star character Mike LaFontaine was known for the catchphrase "Wha' happened?", *For Your Consideration* (2006), and *[Mascots](https://www.edgepedia.org/mascots-2016-film)* (2016).[10](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/fred-willard-scene-stealing-comic-actor-and-master-of-improvisation-dies-at-86/2020/05/17/7b9f54b4-9857-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html) • [1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard)
## Later work and style
Willard appeared in more than seventy films, including *Roxanne* (1987), *The Wedding Planner* (2001), *Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy* (2004) and its 2013 sequel, and Pixar's Oscar-winning *WALL-E* (2008), in which he voiced the CEO of the Buy 'n' Large Corporation, the film's only human actor.[5](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard) • [9](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-05-16/fred-willard-dead) • [11](https://www.who2.com/bio/fred-willard/) He appeared in over 100 sketches on *The Tonight Show with Jay Leno*, and late in life made a memorable cameo as a substitute funeral organist on the Netflix sketch show *I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson* (2019).[5](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard) • [12](https://www.theringer.com/2020/05/17/movies/fred-willard-obituary-i-think-you-should-leave-spinal-tap-waiting-for-guffman)
[Rob Reiner](https://www.edgepedia.org/rob-reiner), director of *This Is Spinal Tap*, described Willard's approach in a 2020 tribute as satire "very close to the bone": Willard would observe how a person would actually speak and behave, then tilt it ever so slightly, so that a viewer might not notice he was making fun of anyone. Reiner added that Willard never broke character and never broke up laughing at his own material.[13](https://time.com/5840183/fred-willard-obituary/) Willard himself told an interviewer in 2008 that he liked playing the person "who will stick his foot in his mouth and say the wrong thing."[2](https://www.rogerebert.com/tributes/fred-willard-1933-2020)
## Death
Willard died on May 15, 2020, in Los Angeles of natural causes, according to his agent Mike Eisenstadt. His wife of 50 years, Mary, had died in 2018; his daughter Hope wrote that he "kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end."[9](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-05-16/fred-willard-dead)
## References
1. [Fred Willard, Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/fred-willard)
2. [Fred Willard: 1933–2020, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/tributes/fred-willard-1933-2020)
3. [Fred Willard, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/fred-willard/)
4. [Fred Willard, LA Phil](https://www.laphil.com/people/fred-willard)
5. [Fred Willard, The Second City](https://www.secondcity.com/people/fred-willard)
6. [Fred Willard, Television Academy Interviews](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/fred-willard)
7. [Willard, Fred, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/willard-fred-1939)
8. [Fred Willard, PBS On Stage at the Kennedy Center](https://www.pbs.org/weta/onstage/twain2002/bios/willard.html)
9. [Fred Willard, master comic who starred in 'Waiting for Guffman,' dies at 86, Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-05-16/fred-willard-dead)
10. [Fred Willard, scene-stealing comic actor and master of improvisation, dies at 86, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/fred-willard-scene-stealing-comic-actor-and-master-of-improvisation-dies-at-86/2020/05/17/7b9f54b4-9857-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html)
11. [Fred Willard Biography, Who2](https://www.who2.com/bio/fred-willard/)
12. [Fred Willard's Genius Was Taking the Ridiculous Seriously, The Ringer](https://www.theringer.com/2020/05/17/movies/fred-willard-obituary-i-think-you-should-leave-spinal-tap-waiting-for-guffman)
13. ['A Brilliant Satirist.' Rob Reiner Explains What Made Fred Willard So Funny, TIME](https://time.com/5840183/fred-willard-obituary/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › American actors: 1970s to 1990s › Surnames Wh to W*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license