He was Michael Scott decades before there was a Michael Scott. For those of us eagerly awaiting Netflix’s new series Space Force its release this month will be bittersweet. Comedian Fred Willard will appear posthumously in the series starring Steve Carell. Willard was 86.
Willard’s passing was announced Friday, May 15th. He leaves behind a generous legacy. His death is not believed to be Covid-19 related.
The four-time Emmy nominee, who called Cleveland,”home,” spread joy through his talent for making people laugh. His work included comedies like A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman, as well as off-Broadway productions including Jules Feiffer’s Little Murders, Dan Greenburg’s Arf and The Great Airplane Snatch, and Mary Willard’s Elvis and Juliet.
Willard was born in Shaker Heights on September 8, 1933. Willard’s mother, Ruth was a housewife. He said that he was 12 years old in 1951 when his father died.
Willard graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1951 and the Virginia Military Institute in 1955. He was stationed in Germany while serving in the United States Army.
His stage career began when he moved to New York in the late 1950s. His initial work included a production of Desperate Hours at a local YMCA where he worked with future comedy partner Vic Grecco.
One of Willard’s earliest breaks would happen in early sixties at Second City where he would appear on stage with legendary comics Robert Klein and David Steinberg.
Second City mourns Willard
Willard was a Second City alum, having auditioned for the comedy troupe in 1965. He had this to say about his time there, “There’s different kinds of improv. There’s Second City improv where you try to slowly build a nice sketch. There’s stuff you do in college coffee houses where you just go joke, joke, joke. Bring another funny character with a funny hat on his head. Christopher Guest is more the line of trying to get a story out.”
Second City posted this one their website:
“The Second Cityis devastated by the loss of one of comedy’s most beloved icons and a true master of improvisation, Fred Willard, who passed away May 15th in Los Angeles. An Ohio native, Willard auditioned for The Second City in 1965 alongside Robert Klein despite having no prior experience with improv comedy. He spent a year with the company in Chicago, developing his unique talents and helping create and perform in the theater’s 18th and 19th revues, Off the Road and This and That.
Willard called his time at The Second City “really one of the best years of my life artistically” because “at Second City, you can do something during the day, have an idea, and have it up on-stage that night.” Always a lovable oddball, one of his favorite characters at Second City was a clumsy vampire whose fangs were two cigarettes hanging out of the sides of his mouth.
Although his time with The Second City was short-lived, Willard remained a steadfast supporter of and friend to the theater for the rest of his life.
“Fred was one of the kindest, most generous souls I have ever met and one of the funniest humans to ever grace that Second City stage, always game. It was no accident that he was always working; he was adored by both audiences and the industry alike. We lost one of the greats,” says Second City CEO and longtime friend Andrew Alexander.
Martin Mull remembers Willard
“He was absolutely, unconditionally original,” Fernwood Tonight and America Tonight co-star Martin Mull told Variety. “He worked so spontaneously. He had such a closet that he could go to. It was just remarkable. You never where he was going to go. He didn’t tip it.”
Launched in 1977, Fernwood 2-nite was a syndicated talk show spoof produced by Norman Lear. Mull played noxious, leisure suit-loving host Barth Gimble. Willard played sidekick Jerry Hubbard who was known to known to be extremely opinionated about minutae.
“He never went for the joke. He went for the character. The character was always the joke for him,” Mull recalled in the same story. “He was such a delight to work with..”
Willard went on to movie fame, playing essentially the same character over and over – playing an idiot in mockumentaries including This is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind and Best in Show.
On TV, he was nominated 4 four times for an Emmy, once for his work on Modern Family as Frank Dunphy in 2010 and from 2003-2005 for his role as Hank McDougall on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Stars and Comedians Mourn on Twitter
From Kevin Smith to Jamie Lee Curtis, Hollywood posted their memories about Willard on Twitter. “One of my favorite lines in a movie ever was delivered by Fred Willard in Best in Show, after a naughty dog went after the judge,” writer and director Kevin Smith tweeted.
Roseanne Barr, who has been fairly quiet since leaving her rebooted series Roseanne (now renamed The Connors) had this to say, “A great comic and a great person.”
Space Force showrunner Greg Daniels spoke about Willard fondly, “The cast and crew had enormous affection and respect for him. His performance at 86 was undiminished brilliance, like his life and career. He will be sorely missed.”
“How lucky that we all got to enjoy Fred Willard’s gifts. He is with his missed Mary now. Thanks for the deep belly laughs Mr. Willard,” actress Jamie Lee Curtis tweeted.
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Willard is survived by his daughter, Hope Mulbarger who confirmed his death in a statement by his media representative Glenn Schwartz.
“My father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old, He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end. We loved him so very much! We will miss him forever.”
His death comes nearly two years after the passing of his wife of 50 years, Mary Willard, who died in 2018 when she was 71 years old.
We leave you with this thought from Willard, “If I have to play an obnoxious character, try to find a redeeming feature of him. The most obnoxious people in the world were people, and they had had a reason for doing what they did. So you try to find that and let the obnoxiousness come out.”
Reel 360 sends out condolences to Fred Willard’s family and friends.
