- Born
- Birth nameWilliam Maher Jr.
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Bill Maher was born William Maher in New York City, New York, and grew up in River Vale, New Jersey. His father, William Aloysius Maher Jr., who was of Irish Catholic descent, was a radio announcer and news editor. His mother, Julie (Berman), was a nurse, who was of Jewish descent. Maher was raised in his father's Catholic faith. While attending Cornell University, he decided to try stand-up comedy. His first stand-up routine was in a Chinese restaurant on Route 17 in Paramus, New Jersey. He soon landed a regular gig at Catch a Rising Star in New York City. After a few years, he became a regular host at the club and was spotted by a scout for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). Maher made numerous appearances on the show, and Carson had been a hero of his since childhood, but he always felt constrained by the rules of network television. During this time, he appeared in films and made guest appearances on numerous sitcoms.
In 1993, Maher was offered his own talk show by Comedy Central. Maher developed the show as a round table discussion on current events. Politically Incorrect (1993) premiered to critical acclaim and attracted major celebrities as well as politicians and pundits. In 1997, the show moved to ABC where it aired to continued success. On September 17, 2001, Maher made controversial comments regarding the terrorists who orchestrated the September 11 attack on the US. Sponsors pulled their ads and affiliates refused to air the show. ABC canceled the show in 2002, citing "low ratings". Maher had been nominated for 11 Emmys for his work on the show. In 2003, he was able to continue his television work with a similar program on HBO titled Real Time with Bill Maher (2003). He remains single and lives in Los Angeles.- IMDb Mini Biography By: MrBlondNYC
- ChildrenNo Children
- ParentsWilliam Aloysius Maher Jr.
- RelativesKathy Maher(Sibling)Stubby Kaye(Cousin)
- Widely lampoons religion and political correctness
- Brash, opinionated style of debate
- Frequent use of irony
- Holds the record for most Emmy Award nominations without a win: 40 (as of 2019).
- Received a great deal of bad press for his comments after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center when he criticized the United States government. Subsequently, advertisers such as Sears and Federal Express pulled their ads and some television stations stop showing his program Politically Incorrect (1993). This eventually led to ABC canceling the show the following year. Commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Arianna Huffington and David Horowitz defended his right to free speech and said that his program should not be canceled.
- Is a staunch political supporter of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
- On June 22, 2002, he received the Los Angeles Press Club's highest honor, the President's Award, for "championing free speech". The award was given six days after the final episode of Politically Incorrect (1993), Bill's social-satire show from which he was dismissed for politically incorrect statements about the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.
- The cable TV sex channels don't expand our horizons, don't make us better people, and don't come in clearly enough.
- [from a 1998 "Mother Jones" interview] My generation didn't face the kind of urgent, pressing issues that my parents did, who fought through a war and a Depression and know what suffering is. That's why Bob Dole had a tough time with this electorate. He was an old-fashioned curmudgeon who knew about sacrifice, and we didn't know if we could live up to his standards. But we knew we could live up to Bill Clinton's. He's more like one of us.
- [when asked what he liked about the Playboy mansion] The food is out of this world!
- I get the Playboy thing a lot. People assume I go out with bimbos. I couldn't go out with bimbos if I tried! I scare them off! The women that like me are smart. So I go to the Playboy Mansion four or five times a year, but people think I go all the time.
- We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly.
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