SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 19 -- Radio personality ...
actor ... author ... director ... comedian ... musician ... philosopher ...
political satirist ... multimedia artist ... and one of the best "voices"
in the business (just ask "The Simpsons"), HARRY SHEARER is one of the most
prolific entertainers of this -- or any -- generation. Today, The Hollywood
Chamber of Commerce's Walk of Fame Committee announced that Harry Shearer
is one of two LA-based radio personalities who will be honored with a star
on Hollywood's Walk of Fame next year.
For 25 years, Harry Shearer has been dissecting headlines,
impersonating news makers, creating topical songs, writing/acting/producing
sketches about political figures, news anchors and entertainers, and
inventing unique feature segments and characters for Le Show, his weekly
Sunday morning program, produced for and distributed nationwide by 89.9
KCRW-Santa Monica and http://www.KCRW.com. Le Show is one of the station's most
popular podcasts -- available here: (http://www.KCRW.com/etc/programs/ls). He
writes, produces and presents all of the material on the show himself.
Vogue magazine called Le Show "a wildly clever, iconoclastic stew of
talk, music, political commentary, readings of inadvertently funny public
documents or trade magazines and scripted skits." Los Angeles Magazine
described Harry's talent for writing and performing this way: "Shearer is a
one-man renaissance assault force on the conventions of our culture and a
much-needed antidote to the current gloom and doom."
An LA native and child actor, Shearer appeared on radio with Jack Benny
and in the pilot episode of TV's "Leave it to Beaver" as Eddie Haskell. A
political science major at UCLA in the early 60s (where he was a writer and
editor for the school's humor magazine), Shearer also did graduate work at
Harvard and served a political internship in Sacramento. As a freelance
journalist, Shearer covered the Watts riots for Newsweek before teaching
high school English for two years in South Central Los Angeles. He cut his
performance and satirical teeth with the legendary 70s stage troupe, "The
Credibility Gap," writing for, producing and performing on their albums and
tours.
Shearer's TV work currently includes "THE SIMPSONS," the longest
running primetime animated series, where he is never seen but always heard
as three of the show's leading characters (Mr. Burns, Smithers and Ned
Flanders) as well as dozens of other "friends" who visit the Simpson
family. Other television credits include "Saturday Night Live," "Murphy
Brown" and "Chicago Hope," to name just a few, and he starred in his own
HBO hour-long special: "Comedy Hour Live: The Magic of Live." He is a
two-time Cable Ace Award winner for his rap music video "Shredding Party,"
and "The News Hole," a current events gameshow. These days, he appears in
his own productions on "My Damn Channel," an Internet-based entertainment
website.
Shearer earned multi-media artist status by creating several acclaimed
museum exhibits of public figures, captured via satellite in silence as
they waited for their television interviews to begin. The Museum of
Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles presented Shearer's installation,
Wall Of Silence, featuring key figures from the O.J. Simpson Trial in their
least soundbite-stealing moments.
Shearer, along with his wife, singer-songwriter Judith Owen, created
Courgette Records; among other albums, they released Shearer's CD "Songs
Pointed and Pointless," which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007. His
new CD, "Songs of the Bushmen," will be released July 7 as a digital
download at http://www.harryshearer.com.
KCRW congratulates Harry Shearer and all of today's announced Walk of
Fame star-honorees: Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Cameron Diaz, Robert
Downey Jr., Tim Burton, Leslie Caron, Charles Durning, Ralph Fiennes,
William Petersen, Kyra Sedgwick, John Stamos, Mark Burnett, Chuck Lorre,
Kenny "Baby Face" Edmonds, Dave Koz, The Miracles, Doug Morris, Rush,
Shakira, KFI radio personality Bill Handel.
See Also
