Cliff

Not that many people can see their careers stretch from films like Gandhi, Superman, and The Empire Strikes Back to Up and Toy Story (all three of them). And somewhere along the line, a television show called Cheers.



How did it start?

I was a carpenter. I did a little bit of acting in college, but nothing serious. I found out that I had a knack for comedy in college, when I forgot the lines of a play and just started making the lines up. Unfortunately, it was a Tennessee Williams play.

Ratzenberg did a long stretch of improv back before most people knew what improv was. And because he was young and had the right body for it, he was in a lot of movies where they needed people in costume. Lately he's voiced every single Pixar feature. And there was that mailman in the middle, still hilarious, as evidenced by the Jeopardy clip.

Check out the interview with John Ratzenberger at A.V. Club.