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Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was a New York-born American entertainer. Though many refer to him as a comedian, Kaufman described himself as a "song and dance man," saying "I never told a joke in my life." He was one of the most famous practitioners of anti-humor or dada absurdism.

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Kaufman first caught major attention with a character named "Foreign Man". Foreign Man, who claimed to be from Caspiar (a fictional island in the Caspian Sea), would appear on the stage of comedy clubs and perform a number of bad impersonations (Archie Bunker, Richard Nixon, etc). For example, he might say in a phony accent, "I would like to imitate Meester Carter, de President of de United States." He would then say in the same voice, "Hello, I am Meester Carter, de President of de United States. Thenk you veddy much." The audience would be torn between outrage at seeing such a bad act, and sympathy for the hapless entertainer, who would cry on stage once heckled enough. At that point, Foreign Man would launch into an Elvis Presley impersonation good enough that Elvis Presley himself would later describe it as his favorite. The audience would realize they had been tricked, which became a trademark of Kaufman's comedy.

Kaufman also made a name for himself on NBC's Saturday Night Live, starting in 1975, as a guest on the show. He would often do odd things, such as lip synch to the Mighty Mouse theme or perform his Foreign Man character.

Latka
Kaufman later reprised the Foreign Man character, renamed Latka Gravas, for the Taxi sitcom in 1978. Kaufman hated sitcoms and was not thrilled with the idea of being on one. In order to allow Kaufman to demonstrate some comedic range, his character was given multiple personality disorder, which allowed Kaufman to display other characters. In one episode, Kaufman's character came down with a condition which made him act like Alex Reiger, the main character played by Judd Hirsch.

On a few occasions, audiences would show up to one of Kaufman's performances requesting to see Latka. Kaufman would announce that he was going to read The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to them. The audience would laugh at this, not realizing that Kaufman was serious and would read extensive passages of the book to them.

Tony Clifton
Another well-known Kaufman character is Tony Clifton, an abusive lounge singer. Clifton began "opening" for Kaufman at comedy clubs and eventually even performed concerts on his own around the country. Sometimes it was Kaufman performing as Clifton, sometimes it was his brother Michael or his friend Bob Zmuda. For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs actually interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act. The interviews would usually turn ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up, because Clifton would claim that Kaufman was using him to get rich.

Clifton was, at Kaufman's insistence, hired for a guest role on Taxi, but after throwing a tantrum on stage, had to be escorted off of the ABC studio's lot by security guards. Much to Kaufman's delight, this incident was reported in the local newspapers.

Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion
Kaufman grew up admiring professional wrestlers and the world that they perform in. For a brief time, Kaufman began wrestling women during his act and was the self-proclaimed "Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion of the World". He offered $1,000 reward to any woman who could pin him. Later, after a challenge from professional wrestler Jerry Lawler, Kaufman would step into the ring (in the Memphis, Tennessee wrestling circuit) with a man - Lawler himself. Lawler's ongoing feud included an apparent broken neck for Kaufman as a result of a piledriver by Lawler, and a famous on-air fight on the Late Night with David Letterman television show. Kaufman and Lawler's famous feud and wrestling matches were all later confirmed to be scripted (in wrestling parlance, a "work") and not real as many believed at the time. In reality, Kaufman was not injured while wrestling Lawler, and the two were actually friends. Remarkably, the truth about it being a work was kept secret for almost 15 years after Kaufman's death until the movie "Man On the Moon" revealed the truth in 1999. In his 2002 biography "It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes," Lawler detailed how they came up with the angle and kept it quiet but did relate that Kaufman's explosion on Letterman was the comedian's own idea.

The Fridays incident
In 1981, Kaufman made a couple of memorable appearances on Fridays, a variety show on ABC that was similar to SNL. Kaufman's first appearance on the show proved to be the most memorable one. During a sketch set in a restaurant, Kaufman broke character and refused to say his lines.

The other comedians were embarrassed by the position that Kaufman had put them in on a live television show. In response, Michael Richards walked off camera and returned with a set of cue cards and dumped them on the table in front of Kaufman. Andy responded by splashing Michael Richards with water. A stagehand stormed onto the stage, leading to a brawl on camera before the show finally cut away to commercial. The entire incident was a gag conceived by Andy Kaufman, but how many people, if any, were in on the joke has never been clear.

Regardless, Kaufman appeared the following week in a videotaped apology to the home viewers. Later that year, Kaufman returned to host Fridays. At one point in the show, he invited gospel singer Kathie Sullivan on stage to sing a few gospel songs with him and announced that the two were engaged to be married and talked to the audience about his newfound faith in Jesus. It was, of course, entirely a hoax.

Death
Kaufman died on May 16, 1984 at the age of 35 of lung cancer in Los Angeles, and was interred in the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York (Long Island). He was diagnosed with the disease in December 1983, but kept the true nature of his health a secret, almost until the day he died. Over the years, many people doubted Kaufman's death, thinking that he staged it as the ultimate Andy Kaufman stunt. For one thing, friends and family said that Andy never smoked, didn't drink regularly, and was also a vegetarian. At the time, lung cancer was considered very rare for non-smokers to contract, and it is also rare in people under 50. Many people assume that his cancer was the result of his nightclub days, meaning that he spent a lot of time breathing in secondhand smoke from comedy club audiences for nearly fifteen years. For another, Kaufman himself even said that if he were to fake his death; he would return 20 years later, on May 16, 2004, a claim which has become an urban legend.

It was only after Kaufman's death that it was revealed he had a daughter, Maria, from a previous relationship. He was forced to give her up for adoption (she never knew her biological father; it was only after Kaufman died that she learned of this).

Claims of Resurfacing
Andy Kaufman allegedly told at least eleven people - including Bob Zmuda - that he wished to fake his own death prior to his passing. This has caused some fans to believe Kaufman is still alive. A screenplay Kauman was working on at the time of his death was about a character (Tony Clifton) who claimed to have lung cancer and faked his death.

Andy lost his hair around the time of his death. This was believed to be due to cancer treatment; however, according to the website Andykaufmanreturns.com, Andy's girlfriend at the time later admitted to having shaved his head with a razor. Andy's sister later commented after his death that she found it odd that the doctor who diagnosed Andy with cancer had been wearing tennis shoes, sparking debate amongst fans as to whether Andy had paid off an actor friend to pose as a doctor. There are many such rumors involving Andy's "hoax" death, and the 1999 Jim Carrey film "Man on the Moon" even references these rumors by including an open ending in which Andy may or may not still be alive. Bob Zmuda has acknowledged "death hoax" rumors over the years quite tongue-in-cheek, admitting that Andy and he had discussed faking his death at times and that Andy seemed "obsessed with the idea," but he maintains the opinion that Andy truly did die and his death was not faked. Zmuda claims he doesn't think Andy would be cruel enough to go this long without making contact with his family if he were still alive. But he also acknowledged the concept that Kaufman could have faked his death in 1980 and died later on of some other cause.

Trivia

Kaufman made ten appearances on David Letterman's morning and late-night shows, including one where he claimed to be homeless and begged the audience for money and one where he talked about his adopted children, who turned out to be three full grown African American men.

In 1979, Kaufman performed in front of a Carnegie Hall audience, whom he then took out for milk and cookies, via 35 buses that were waiting outside. At the beginning of his Carnegie Hall performance, Kaufman invited his grandmother to watch the show from a chair he had placed at the side of the stage. At the end of the show, his grandmother stood up, took her mask off and revealed to the audience that she was actually comedian Robin Williams in disguise.

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Op zondag 6 augustus 2006 01:01 schreef JeOma het volgende:
Ik heb 't niet zo extreem als jij, maar ik vind het ook erg fascinerend. Heb nav de film (plus natuurlijk die perfecte track van REM als title song) ook wat rondgezocht naar Kaufman. Bizarre vent. Persoonlijk denk ik dat hij gek was.

Maar ik ben eigenlijk benieuwd naar JOUW mening. Want zo te lezen heb jij je ECHT verdiept. Wat vind jij, TS? Was 'ie gek of geniaal?

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"The only thing that is odd is page 112 of The Tony Clifton Story, a screenplay that Andy and I wrote, that was never made. On page 112, Tony dies of lung cancer at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. Andy Kaufman would die of lung cancer at Cedars-Sinai eight years later. Pretty odd stuff."