Of all of the celebrities whom I met on September 25, 2010, at the Hollywood Celebrity show in Chicago, I’d have to say that Tim Kazurinsky was the friendliest. He is probably best known as being a repertory cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1981-84, doing a wide variety of characters and celebrity impressions. He really seemed to be in his element when performing a crotchety old man such as Mr. Robinson’s (played by Eddie Murphy) landlord. One of my personal favorite roles of that of Pa Greavy in the John Belushi/Dan Aykroyd under-rated vehicle Neighbors.
He agreed with me and noted that it was one of his favorite of all of his performances. We talked for a bit about that film and he told me how Belushi and Aykroyd nearly drove director John Avildsen crazy, threatening to not do the film unless they could switch roles at the last minute. We talked about the DVD not being available in American and I told him that I had gotten mine as an import from The Netherlands.
One of his other major roles was that of Sweetchuck in three of the Police Academy films (seen above). And although he doesn’t live in Hollywood, he makes it back there now and then to do small parts in various films and TV shows including Married…With Children, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and According to Jim (the series of John Belushi’s younger brother Jim).
He also told me how he had written the screenplay for a film called About Last Night that starred Demi Moore and Rob Lowe, and upon the successful sale of this, he realized how much easier screenwriting was over acting. He soon learned that he could write from his home, and thus left Hollywood and returned to Chicago where he had worked on Second City in the late 1970’s.
I enjoyed talking with Tim Kazurinsky and naturally, he was one of the good ones who posed for photos for free – even offering up a couple different poses as seen above in front of his Police Academy 3 poster and a standard thumbs-up pose. Cool guy.
Celebrities of the Fall 2010 Chicago celebrity show will continue…
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