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Overview (4) |
Mini Bio (1) |
Spouse (1) |
Trade Mark (1) |
Trivia (29) |
Personal Quotes (26) |
Salary (7)
Overview (4)
| Born | in Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Birth Name | Daniel Louis Castellaneta |
| Nickname | Doofus |
| Height | 5' 9" (1.75 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Daniel Louis Castellaneta is an American actor, voice actor, comedian and screenwriter. Castellaneta is best known for voicing Homer Simpson on the animated series The Simpsons (1989) (as well as other characters on the show such as Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Mel, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, and Hans Moleman). Castellaneta also had voice roles in several other programs, including Futurama (1999), Sibs (1991) and Darkwing Duck (1991), The Adventures of Dynamo Duck (1990), The Batman (2004), Back to the Future (1991), Aladdin (1994), Taz-Mania (1991) and Hey Arnold! (1996). He also occasionally guest starred on shows like Friends (1994) and How I Met Your Mother (2005).
In 1999, he appeared in the Christmas special Olive, the Other Reindeer (1999) and won an Annie Award for his portrayal of the Postman. Castellaneta released a comedy album "I Am Not Homer", and wrote and starred in a one-person show titled "Where Did Vincent van Gogh?".
- IMDb Mini Biography By: -
Spouse (1)
| Deb Lacusta | (1987 - present) |
Trade Mark (1)
The voice of Homer Simpson
Trivia (29)
Former member of Chicago Second City
Graduated from the class of 1975 from Oak Park River Forest High School
Practices tai chi.
At first, for the voice of "Homer Simpson", Dan tried to imitate Walter Matthau, but he had trouble with certain emotional registers and intonations with the voice, so he slightly changed the present voice of Homer at the beginning of the second season of The Simpsons (1989).
Doesn't drink.
His voice characterization of "Krusty the Clown" on Fox-TV's The Simpsons (1989), was based on Chicago television legend Bob Bell, who portrayed WGN-TV's "Bozo" from 1960-1984.
"Castellaneta" is the name of a city in Italy
Graduate of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
In 2002, his trademark phrase "d'oh" from "The Simpsons" was considered valid, and added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The phrase "d'oh" appears only as "Annoyed Grunt" in Simpsons scripts.
Homer Simpson, voiced by Castellaneta on The Simpsons (1989), was ranked #35 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].
Played Danny DeVito's client in The War of the Roses (1989), and his brother on The Simpsons (1989).
Once asked in an interview what "D'oh!" means. He replied that he thought "D'oh!", the trademark line of his "Simpsons" character Homer, was a euphemism for "damn".
According to the producers of The Simpsons (1989), he is so in character when playing "Homer Simpson", that when he makes a mistake during a line reading, it is the type of mistake Homer would make. For example, in the episode "Homer Goes To College", Homer chants "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T!" His saying S-M-R-T was not scripted, improvised or even intended to be a joke, it was just a mistake.
Has two younger sisters named Paula and Gina and two nephews named Calvin and Cary
Popular stand up comedian and voice over actor of numerous cartoons and advertisements.
Took over the voice of the Genie from Robin Williams for the "Aladdin" TV show and subsequent movies. However, when Williams made peace with Disney, he took the role back from Castellaneta.
Good friends with Tracey Ullman. They did a lot of comedy work together, and it was Ullman that got Dan his most famous role as Homer Simpson.
Did some work at a Montreal, Canada, radio station in 2004.
Explained in 2005, on Bravo channel, that his "Homer Simpson" voice was also partly based on his father's as well as the late Walter Matthau's.
According to The Simpsons (1989)' creator, Matt Groening, Dan is the one person he will not sit in with when Dan records voices, because Matt says that he finds Dan so funny when he records voices that he cannot stop himself from laughing, effectively ruining several takes.
Is the only member of The Simpsons (1989) cast (Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer and Yeardley Smith ) who has not had a divorce. Julie Kavner has never been married.
With all of the voice-over work he has done, it is ironic that he appears as a semi-major character in The War of the Roses (1989) and never uses his voice at all.
He is the only main cast member of The Simpsons (1989) to have written more then one of the show. Nancy Cartwright has written one.
As a child, Castellaneta would mimic cartoon voices from television. His father was an amateur actor, and Dan would try to do the accents with his father.
Up until 1998, was paid $30,000 per Simpsons episode. He and the five other main Simpsons voice actors were then involved in a pay dispute in which Fox threatened to replace them with new actors and went as far as preparing for casting of new voices. However, the issue was soon resolved and from 1998 to 2004, they were given $125,000 per episode. In 2004, the voice actors intentionally skipped several table reads, demanding they be paid $360,000 per episode. The strike was resolved a month later and Castellaneta's salary was increased to $250,000 per episode. Another contract renegotiation in 2008 saw his salary rise to $400,000 per episode. He was also made a consulting producer.
He is a lifelong Democrat.
He was considered for the voice role of Lumiere in Disney's Beauty and The Beast (1991).
Personal Quotes (26)
To many, Homer may appear lazy and a loser, but he's just much misguided. He's boorish, sure, but well meaning and, I guess, the one thing we have in common is the pursuit of lousy diets.
Don't eat me. I have a wife and kids. Eat them.
The humor is essentially dark for a cartoon and sophisticated. But at the same time, being a cartoon gives the writers more freedom than in a normal sitcom. It always pushes the line that, despite human failings, the Simpsons are really decent people.
After years of doing it, you learn the difference between your ego and your opinion. When you're married you have to cut through that.
Sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making someone else look bad. And I'm tired of making other people feel good about themselves.
Beer. Now there's a temporary solution.
I've made a kind of pact with myself where I said, It doesn't matter what it is as long as I'm acting.
I think that most people don't even know that I do other things. They think that Homer is all that I do.
I often say, if I wasn't part of the show I'd be a huge fan of it.
Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
Getting out of jury duty is easy. The trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races.
It's the cushiest job, but some lines are so funny that I crack up.
It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself.
It is better to watch things then to do them.
In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
If I were actually Homer Simpson, I'd be getting scripts out the wazoo.
It's a different way of getting across an emotion. You're trying to get it across to the animator because the animator is inspired by the voicetrack in terms of how to animate the character.
I think the tone of the show has certainly changed over the years, because it's really, really hard to do something different when you have a show going on as long as this has.
I always enjoyed writing. I did playlets in high school, I did radio shows in college. That's one of the reasons I went down to Second City, because you could do acting and writing.
The Simpsons take up so little time that I'm able to do other things as well.
The nice thing is that, at least in Los Angeles, I'm known as a character actor and I do auditions for other things besides just cartoon shows.
There are times when the writers ask us to improvise. Sometimes the animators are inspired by what you do, and sometimes you are inspired by what the animators do.
The voice doesn't take a lot of effort now, but in the beginning it was hard to try to find a voice. The one I settled on was just easier to do for a half-hour.
The Simpsons can go anywhere in the world and not worry about any budgetary issues. However, even when the show has had its run, I think the characters can go on in perpetuity.
One of my favorite episodes was the one in which Homer grew hair. That was a very unique episode, since there was a gay secretary, but that wasn't even the issue of the show-the issue was Homer's image changing because he had hair.
It's the weirdest thing. When you go into acting, you expect to be a huge star and to be recognized... It did happen, but not in the way you expect it to... In L.A., I'm just another character actor.
Salary (7)
| The Simpsons (1989) | $250,000 -$360,000 per episode (2004-2008) |
| The Simpsons (1989) | $400,000 -$440,000 per episode (2008-2011) |
| The Simpsons (1989) | $400,000 /episode (2009-10) |
| The Simpsons (1989) | $400,000 /episode (2010-11) |
| The Simpsons (1989) | $30,000 per episode (1989-1998) |
| The Simpsons (1989) | $125,000 per episode (1998-2004) |
| The Simpsons (1989) | $300,000 per episode (2011-) |
