- Born
- Birth nameKevin Elliot Pollak
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Kevin (Elliott) Pollak was born in San Francisco, California, on October 30, 1957, to Robert and Elaine (Harlow) Pollak, of Jewish descent. A stand-up comedy performer at age 10, he attended Pioneer High School in nearby San Jose, before turning professional comedian at 20. He rose through the ranks to the top of the San Francisco comedy scene by age 25, then moved to Los Angeles to decided to focus on acting.
With his early 1980's comic reputation preceding him, Kevin earned a regular role in the short-lived National Lampoon comedy series Hot Flashes (1984) and also participated in the series Comedy Break (1985). A series of TV guest parts included "Amen," "Thirtysomething," "Who's the Boss," and a regular role as the head of a senior retirement facility in the comedy series Coming of Age (1988).
Landing a part in George Lucas' Willow (1988), directed by Ron Howard, the opportunity became the wind beneath his wings, and Kevin sailed from then on. Critically noticed for his featured role as Izzy in the acclaimed Polish-Jewish family drama Avalon (1990) written and directed by Barry Levinson, he moved ahead with support parts in L.A. Story (1991) and Another You (1991), but it was dry-humored lieutenant in Rob Reiner's powerful drama A Few Good Men (1992) that shot him up the film credit's list. In addition to starring in his own HBO stand-up comedy special, Kevin Pollak: Stop with the Kicking (1991), he co-starred in the short-lived comedy series Morton & Hayes (1991) which co-starred Kevin with Bob Amaral and featured "lost clips" of them as an old time comedy team.
A strong support player in the films Indian Summer (1993), Wayne's World 2 (1993), Grumpy Old Men (1993), Clean Slate (1994) and Miami Rhapsody (1995), Pollak often played the best pal of the lead to amusing effect, but took a major departure from his comic instincts to play pungent dramatics in two crime dramas: as Todd Hockney, one of the criminals/suspects in the ultimate whodunnit The Usual Suspects (1995); as real estate hustler Philip Green in Martin Scorsese's mafioso drama Casino (1995)
Pollak returned to lighter material uplifting John Candy's last movie comedy Canadian Bacon (1995), and appearing in the Lemmon/Matthau sequel Grumpier Old Men (1995), co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in the fun family film House Arrest (1996); the fictional pop band musical That Thing You Do! (1996); the zany farce The Sex Monster (1999); and the romantic comedies She's All That (1999) and Deal of a Lifetime (1999).
Pollak would return to the live stand-up stage in 2001, headlining a sold out 20 city tour. Comedy Central named him on their Top 100 Comedians Of All Time list. He went on to star in his own comedy special Kevin Pollak: The Littlest Suspect (2010). He has also hosted his own talk show, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show (2009) and, as an avid poker player, participated in both Celebrity Poker Showdown (2003) and Poker Night Live (2018).
Quite busy into the millennium, Pollak's movie work has included primarily comedies, including his over-the-top crimesters in the farcical The Whole Nine Yards (2000) and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards (2004), as well as 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), The Santa Clause 2 (2002), The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), Cop Out (2010), 3 Geezers! (2013), Compadres (2016), Lez Bomb (2018) and Benjamin (2019). On the TV front, he has enjoyed recurring roles in the mystery series Shark (2006); the horror comedy Sleeper (2010) (in which he made his directorial debut); the family comedy Mom (2013); the comedy fantasy Angel from Hell (2016); and the award-winning period comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
- SpouseLucy Webb(December 1995 - March 18, 2010) (divorced)
- ParentsRobert PollakElaine Pollak (Klein)
- Does such a good impersonation of Alan Arkin that a message he left on Alan Arkin's answering machine confused Alan Arkin into thinking he had left himself a message.
- Shares a birthday with his own father.
- He does "dead on" impersonations of Christopher Walken, Robert De Niro, Alan Arkin, Jack Nicholson, Peter Falk, and, most notoriously, William Shatner.
- Started his stand-up career when he was 17 years old.
- Started out with stand-up comedy and is a great impressionist.
- As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride. You make a movie, and the audience may not see it for another 10 months. Here, you know immediately their reaction.
- I am completely and utterly hooked to all the great shows on A&E and Court TV that are about small town murder. These shows like Forensic Files (1996), City Confidential (1998), I just can't get enough of them. It's always the same sort of deal. You know that they interview the actual people that lived through the experience. I miss Paul Winfield as the host of City Confidential (1998), may he rest in peace.
- (On Bruce Willis) We became good friends during A Few Good Men (1992). He was shooting Death Becomes Her (1992) right next door and, of course, he'd come over to visit his wife and we started hanging out and have been good friends since. He's amazing. One of the things I admire, separate from his work which I've always enjoyed, is that the people he's surrounded by are friends he's known for 25 years or more. It doesn't feel like a posse. It feels like he created his own family at work, which is pretty admirable. When you're young and thinking about going into show business your closest friends are the first to say, "Someday you're going to be famous and we'll all hang out together". You say, "Yeah, yeah" and it never happens. But I stay in touch with three of my best friends which I've known for 35 years. We make an annual trek to Vegas for the Super Bowl and for those three or four days it's heaven on earth. Bruce is unbelievably generous and loyal and a true inspiration in that regard as well. I love working with him. I love being around him. He's the party.
- (On being a supporting actor) "It was once suggested that as long as the leading man needs a best friend or an attorney, I'll continue to work. You know you have to bring your own thing to it, and fortunately if you have a director offering me the part because he wants me to bring my own thing to it, I'm going to be able to do that. I like to think that I choose things that will have an impact on the story."
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