49 Fun Facts About Chevy Chase

What is Chevy Chase's real first name?

He was named for his adoptive grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, heir to the Crane Company fortune.

Which SNL menace did Chase voice, mumbling 'plumber' and 'candygram' to get victims to open their doors?

Land Shark, SNL's answer to Jaws: in its November 1975 debut it tried 'flowers', 'plumber' and 'candygram' through a locked door, then got in by swearing it was only a dolphin.

Chase's grandfather, Miles Browning, was chief of staff aboard USS Enterprise during which pivotal Pacific battle?

Midway was the battle: with Admiral Halsey in hospital, Browning advised his stand-in Raymond Spruance in June 1942, when American dive bombers sank all four Japanese carriers present.

At Bard College, Chase played drums in a band with two future founders of which group?

Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen were his bandmates in The Leather Canary; Chase kept at music after Bard, playing drums and keyboards for the rock band Chamaeleon Church before comedy took over.

By a legend Chase himself half-confirmed, why was he thrown out of Haverford College?

Keeping a cow in his room is the story Chase went along with on the Today show in 2009, but a former roommate says he simply left Haverford after a year for academic reasons.

Chase was the first host of which recurring Saturday Night Live segment?

Weekend Update, which Chase devised with Herb Sargent, had him at the desk from SNL's October 1975 premiere, where he kept announcing that Spain's Francisco Franco was still dead.

Which US president did Chase famously portray on SNL as a bumbling klutz?

Gerald Ford really had stumbled on the steps of Air Force One in Austria in 1975, and Chase's pratfalls fixed a clumsy image on a man who had won two national football titles at Michigan.

Whose 1977 TV special won Chase a writing Emmy, nine years before the two shared a famous music video?

Paul Simon's special brought Chase a third Emmy after two for Saturday Night Live; in the 1986 video for 'You Can Call Me Al', Chase mouths the lead vocal while Simon mimes along on a string of instruments.

Chase was contracted to SNL's first season in what capacity, only joining the cast during rehearsals?

As a writer he had signed for a single year; added to the cast during rehearsals, he became the show's breakout star and was gone early in its second season.

Chase left SNL in late 1976, saying the main reason was what?

His girlfriend would not move to New York, Chase said, so he left for Los Angeles and married her, Jacqueline Carlin, that December; they divorced four years later.

Which cast member replaced Chase on SNL when he left?

Bill Murray joined the cast in January 1977 to fill the gap; the two came to blows backstage when Chase returned to host in 1978, then shared a scene in Caddyshack.

Which piano-playing singer was SNL's musical guest the 1978 night Chase fought his replacement backstage?

Billy Joel sang on the February 1978 show Chase came back to host; just before air he and his replacement traded insults, then blows, and moments later Chase was in front of the cameras.

Which Animal House role, written for him, did Chase turn down for a Goldie Hawn comedy?

Eric 'Otter' Stratton went to Tim Matheson: director John Landis wanted unknowns rather than famous comedians and says he nudged Chase away by stressing the film was an ensemble.

Chase's first film hit and Golden Globe-nominated role came in which 1978 comedy?

Foul Play, which Chase picked over Animal House, earned him a Golden Globe nomination opposite Goldie Hawn, and the pair reunited for Seems Like Old Times in 1980.

What is the name of Chase's laid-back golfer character in Caddyshack?

Ty Webb, the playboy son of one of the club's founders, hands out Zen-like golf advice to young caddie Danny Noonan, who is chasing a college scholarship.

What is the name of the exclusive golf club where Caddyshack is set?

Bushwood Country Club is where Danny Noonan caddies while angling for the club's caddie scholarship under the eye of Judge Smails.

What is the name of the family Chase heads in the Vacation films?

The Griswolds — Clark, Ellen, Rusty and Audrey — drive from the Chicago suburbs to California because Clark wants more family time, and end the trip surrounded by a police SWAT team.

Who wrote the screenplay for National Lampoon's Vacation, based on his own short story 'Vacation '58'?

John Hughes based 'Vacation '58' on his own childhood family trips; Harold Ramis and Chase then rewrote his first draft to tell it from the father's point of view instead of the son's.

What is the ugly, oversized car Clark is forced to buy in Vacation?

The Wagon Queen Family Truckster is forced on Clark when the shady dealer says the car he ordered is six weeks away and that his trade-in has already been crushed.

Which supermodel made her acting debut in Vacation as the woman in the red Ferrari?

Christie Brinkley, then a top swimsuit model, made her screen debut as the flirtatious Ferrari driver Clark keeps meeting on the road; she reprised the role in Vegas Vacation (1997).

Which amusement park does the family cross the country to reach in National Lampoon's Vacation?

Walley World replaced the Disneyland of the original magazine story and was filmed at Magic Mountain in California; the family arrives to find it closed for two weeks of repairs.

Who plays Clark's long-suffering wife Ellen across the Vacation films?

Beverly D'Angelo played Ellen in all five theatrical films, while the couple's children were recast every time after Anthony Michael Hall passed on the first sequel to make Weird Science.

In Christmas Vacation, what does Clark receive instead of his expected bonus?

A Jelly of the Month Club membership arrives in place of the bonus Clark was counting on to pay for a swimming pool, so Cousin Eddie kidnaps his boss, Frank Shirley.

Who plays Cousin Eddie, the unwelcome relative, in the Vacation films?

Randy Quaid's Cousin Eddie, married to Ellen's cousin Catherine, was later given a TV spin-off of his own, the 2003 film Christmas Vacation 2: Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure, made without Chase.

Which actor played Clark's grown-up son Rusty in the 2015 Vacation reboot, in which Chase had a cameo?

Ed Helms's Rusty, now an airline pilot, takes his own family on the road trip he made as a boy; it was the fifth theatrical Vacation film, and Chase had played Clark in the other four.

Fletch (1985) was based on novels by which author?

Gregory Mcdonald kept a veto over casting and turned down both Burt Reynolds and Mick Jagger before agreeing to Chase, whom he had never seen perform.

What is Fletch's full name?

Irwin M. Fletcher files his column as 'Jane Doe' and almost never gives his real name: asked who he is, he answers, straight-faced, 'Ted Nugent'.

Which NBA player appears as himself in Fletch's dream of playing for the Lakers?

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had already sent himself up as a co-pilot in Airplane!; here he shares the court with a dreaming Fletch in an afro while announcer Chick Hearn calls the play.

Which arrogant tennis-club member's tab does Fletch run up on lunches and cabana bills?

Ted Underhill is the boorish member Fletch hears berating a waiter, so Fletch bills his lunches and cabana to 'the Underhills' for the rest of the film.

Chase co-starred with which fellow SNL alumnus in the 1985 John Landis comedy Spies Like Us?

Dan Aykroyd first wrote it for himself and John Belushi; filmed after Belushi's death as a homage to the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby 'Road' pictures, it gives Hope a cameo.

Which SCTV comedian played the third amigo alongside Chase in the 1986 Western comedy ¡Three Amigos!?

Martin Short plays Ned Nederlander beside Chase's Dusty Bottoms and Steve Martin's Lucky Day; the three were reunited on Saturday Night Live in 2013, during Justin Timberlake's opening monologue.

Who wrote ¡Three Amigos! along with Steve Martin and Randy Newman?

Lorne Michaels co-wrote and produced the film; Randy Newman, brought in to write its songs, also voiced the Singing Bush.

Chase hosted the 1987 Academy Awards with Goldie Hawn and which Australian comedy star?

Paul Hogan, nominated that night for co-writing Crocodile Dundee, shared the 1987 stage with Chase and Goldie Hawn; the next year Chase was asked back to host alone.

How long did The Chevy Chase Show, Fox's late-night talk show, last on air?

About five weeks: it premiered on 7 September 1993 from a Hollywood theatre Fox had renamed after Chase, and the network cancelled it after the 15 October broadcast.

Which 1991 film began Chase's run of three straight flops and earned Razzie nominations?

Nothing but Trouble's writer-director, making his directing debut, also played its 106-year-old judge and won that year's Razzie for worst supporting actor.

Chase's career revived with which character on the NBC sitcom Community?

Pierce Hawthorne, a moist-towelette tycoon, was Chase's role from 2009; he left during season four after a long feud with the show's creator, and the writers killed Pierce off the following season.

Community was created by whom?

Dan Harmon created Community in 2009, was fired before season four and rehired for season five; the Greendale study group also included Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Donald Glover and Danny Pudi.

In 1986 Chase checked into a famous California clinic, where his publicist said he was treating a dependency on what?

Prescription painkillers, his publicist said, for chronic back trouble from his pratfalls on Saturday Night Live; he went back into treatment for alcohol in 2016.

On the set of which 1981 film did Chase suffer a near-fatal electric shock?

Modern Problems, in which Chase plays an air traffic controller who gains telekinesis, nearly killed him when the landing lights wired to his body short-circuited and current ran through his arms, back and neck.

Who wrote Seems Like Old Times, the 1980 comedy that reunited Chase with Goldie Hawn?

Neil Simon's script has Chase's novelist kidnapped, forced to rob a bank and then hiding out with his ex-wife, whose new husband is the district attorney.

Which comedy legend did Chase thank in his Emmy acceptance speech as an influence on his SNL work?

Ernie Kovacs, the 1950s television innovator famous for surreal visual gags, was the influence Chase thanked when he collected his SNL Emmy in 1976.

A 1975 New York magazine cover story touted Chase as the heir to which late-night host?

Johnny Carson was not flattered: he later said Chase 'couldn't ad-lib a fart after a baked-bean dinner', while Chase told the magazine he would never be tied down interviewing TV personalities.

Which syndicated satirical show made Chase a full-time comedian in 1973, alongside Belushi and Radner?

The National Lampoon Radio Hour fed its cast straight into television: Chase, John Belushi and Gilda Radner all went from it to the first season of Saturday Night Live in 1975.

Which 2010 comedy featuring Chase spawned a sequel he also appeared in?

Hot Tub Time Machine cast Chase as the cryptic repairman who turns up after the tub throws four friends back to 1986, the year ¡Three Amigos! came out; he returned for the 2015 sequel.

Chase graduated from Stockbridge School in 1962 holding which class title?

Class valedictorian at Stockbridge, a progressive boarding school, Chase then lasted a single year at Haverford College before finishing an English degree at Bard.

Chase had already hosted SNL five times when which actor's 1990 monologue introduced the Five-Timers Club?

Tom Hanks was on his own fifth turn as host, and Steve Martin and Elliott Gould welcomed him to the club; Chase had qualified four years earlier and went on to host eight times, the last in 1997.

Where was Chevy Chase born in 1943?

New York City, not the Maryland town that shares his nickname; after his parents, a book editor and a pianist, separated he lived with his mother in Woodstock, New York, which one reference work gives as his birthplace.

Chase has said he dodged the draft by falsely claiming what to his draft board?

That he had homosexual tendencies was the false claim that won him a 4-F classification, Chase said in January 1989 as the very first guest on Pat Sajak's new late-night show.

How did Chase open the 1988 Academy Awards telecast?

'Good evening, Hollywood phonies!' opened the 60th Academy Awards in April 1988, held more than a month into a writers' strike that left gaps in the script for comedians to fill with ad-libs.