1. Chris Elliott was a regular performer on Late Night with David Letterman while working as a writer there, created and starred in the comedy series Get a Life on Fox, and wrote and starred in the film Cabin Boy.
26 Facts About Chris Elliott
1. 2.
Chris Elliott's writing for Letterman won four consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards.
3.
Chris Elliott appeared in many films, including Groundhog Day, There's Something About Mary, Snow Day, and The Rewrite.
4.
Chris Elliott attended the National Theater Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center for a semester.
5.
Chris Elliott was hired as a production assistant on Late Night with David Letterman, and was with the show from its beginning in February 1982.
6.
Chris Elliott became best friends and writing partners with Matt Wickline, another Letterman crew member who was promoted to the writing staff in 1983.
7.
Chris Elliott became known in the mid-1980s for playing an assortment of recurring quirky, oddball characters on Late Night, each of which would usually last for a few weeks to a few months, before being retired amidst much mock-fanfare on the show.
8.
In 1987, while still working at Letterman, Chris Elliott starred in two Cinemax Comedy Experiment TV specials called FDR: A One Man Show and Action Family.
9.
Chris Elliott co-wrote both specials with Letterman writers Matt Wickline and Sandy Frank.
10.
Chris Elliott looked and sounded nothing like Roosevelt; he portrayed events from his life that never happened, such as a Japanese bombing of the White House, and his crossing the Potomac in a rowboat.
11.
Chris Elliott switched to collaborating on his Letterman character bits with Adam Resnick, a writer.
12.
Chris Elliott was offered the job but turned it down to stay at Letterman.
13.
Chris Elliott began taking small film roles, often as a supporting actor in films such as Michael Mann's Manhunter and James Cameron's The Abyss.
14.
Chris Elliott had a small supporting role in an episode of Miami Vice.
15.
Chris Elliott left Late Night in early 1990 and moved to Los Angeles, though he would return as a guest interview subject many times on Late Night and Letterman's subsequent talk show The Late Show with David Letterman.
16.
In 1990, Chris Elliott starred in his own sitcom, Get a Life, which he co-created with Adam Resnick.
17.
In 1993, Chris Elliott teamed up with producer Brad Hall and directed a series of critically acclaimed short films that Chris Elliott showed when appearing on Late Show with David Letterman.
18.
Chris Elliott had a "terrible time" on the show, finding himself to be "too old," and disliking the toxic environment and late hours.
19.
Chris Elliott joined the ensemble cast of the NBC sitcom The Naked Truth for its third season.
20.
Chris Elliott played Ben Stiller's best friend in the Farrelly Brothers hit comedy There's Something About Mary, reinvigorating his film career.
21.
Chris Elliott began the decade with a major role as the villain in the Nickelodeon movie Snow Day.
22.
Chris Elliott spent much of the decade attempting to create another show for himself, selling a family sitcom to Fox in 2004 and one to CBS in 2006.
23.
Chris Elliott had a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother, playing the estranged father of character Lily Aldrin from 2009 to 2014.
24.
In 2011, Chris Elliott returned to a leading role on TV for the first time since Get a Life, starring in the Adult Swim series Eagleheart.
25.
In 2015, Chris Elliott became part of the ensemble cast of Schitt's Creek, starring alongside Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara as town mayor Roland Schitt.
26.
Into Hot Air tells the story of Chris Elliott climbing Mount Everest with a group of celebrities tagging along to underwrite the trek as he investigates his Uncle Percy's failed Everest expedition.