Charles Rocket
{{short description|American actor and comedian (1949–2005)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Charles Rocket
| image = RocketCharlesz.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Charles Adams Claverie
| birth_date = {{birth date|1949|08|28}}
| birth_place = Bangor, Maine, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2005|10|07|1949|08|28}}
| death_place = Canterbury, Connecticut, U.S.
| other_names = Charlie Hamburger
Charlie Kennedy
| alma_mater = Rhode Island School of Design
| occupation = {{hlist|Actor|comedian|musician|reporter}}
| years_active = 1980–2005
| spouse = {{marriage|Beth Crellin|1972}}
| children = 1
}}
Charles Adams Claverie (August 28, 1949 – October 7, 2005), known by stage names Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy, and Charles Rocket, was an American actor. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, played the villain Nicholas Andre in the film Dumb and Dumber, and played Dave Dennison in Disney's Hocus Pocus.
Early life
Rocket was born in Bangor, Maine, the son of Mary Aurelia (née Fogler) and Sumner Abbott "Ham" Claverie. His grandfather was Raymond H. Fogler, who had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.{{cite news| title=Charlie (Claverie) Rocket was a local boy, WHS grad| url=http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20051021/News/310219964| last=Morse| first=Susan| date=February 1, 2011| work=Hampton Union| access-date=September 8, 2017}}{{cite web| url=https://www.onegreatfamilytree.net/ancestry/people/Mary-Fogler/588609498 |title=Mary Aurelia Fogler |access-date=2015-02-17 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217224636/https://www.onegreatfamilytree.net/ancestry/people/Mary-Fogler/588609498 |archive-date=February 17, 2015 |df=mdy }} He attended Winnacunnet High School{{cite news |last1=Sargent |first1=Colin W. |title=The Long Weekend Update |url=https://portlandmonthly.com/pdf/The%20Long%20Weekend%20Update.pdf |access-date=8 May 2023 |publisher=Portland Monthly Magazine |date=Summer 2012}} and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in the late 1960s and was part of the Rhode Island underground culture scene in the 1970s that also included Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and film director Gus Van Sant.{{cite news| title=RIP, Charles Rocket Remembering a giant of the Providence underground| url=http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/p_and_j/documents/05030762.asp| access-date=6 August 2015| work=The Providence Phoenix| date=October 14, 2005| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922034631/http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/p_and_j/documents/05030762.asp| archive-date=September 22, 2015| df=mdy-all}}
Career
Rocket made several short films and fronted his band, the Fabulous Motels, on accordion (which he later used in an SNL sketch about a crazed criminal who uses an accordion to kill his dates and is killed himself by a bagpipe band).
He was then a news anchor at WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, and KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colorado, under his own name, and WTVF Nashville under the name Charles Kennedy.
=''Saturday Night Live''=
Rocket was cast for the 1980–1981 season, which followed the departure of the remaining members of the show's original cast and executive producer Lorne Michaels. Singled out by new executive producer Jean Doumanian, he was promoted as a cross between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.{{sfn|Hill|Weingrad|2011|p=390}} Rocket was tapped to anchor Weekend Update, and was featured in more sketches than any other male cast member that season.
Rocket portrayed recurring character Phil Lively, a game show host who took his larger-than-life persona home and treated life as if it were a game show. His celebrity impersonations on SNL included Ronald Reagan, David Rockefeller, Prince Charles, and Marlin Perkins. He also hosted "The Rocket Report", a series of filmed segments where he posed as a roving reporter around New York; in later years, reviewers considered them one of the few consistently strong parts of Doumanian's shows.{{cite book| last1=Hill| first1=Doug| last2=Weingrad| first2=Jeff| date=December 15, 2011| title=Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live| publisher=Untreed Books| isbn=9781611872187| page=423| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rkUn4S_OlngC&q=rocket+report}}
==Dismissal==
The Saturday Night Live episode of February 21, 1981, hosted by Dallas star Charlene Tilton, featured a parody of the famed "Who shot J.R.?" story arc from the popular nighttime soap. During the show a plot line had Rocket and Tilton flirting while other cast members expressed jealousy, leading to Rocket being shot in the chest by a sniper in the middle of a sketch. In the show's closing moments, as cast members gathered with the host to say good night, Tilton asked Rocket how he felt about being shot. In character, Rocket replied "Oh man, it's the first time I've ever been shot in my life. I'd like to know who fuckin' did it."{{sfn|Hill|Weingrad|2011|p=215}}
Due partially to the violation of broadcast standards (though FCC rules weren't violated as it was uttered past safe harbor), along with negative press regarding the new cast and declining ratings for both the series and the network in general, NBC replaced Doumanian with Dick Ebersol after one further episode. Ebersol, who placed the show on hiatus for a month to retool, dismissed Rocket, along with several of the writers and fellow cast members Gilbert Gottfried and Ann Risley, before the next episode. A writers' strike led to the suspension of the rest of the season, and when the show returned in October 1981, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy were the only cast members who were held over from Doumanian's era. Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live revealed that Rocket was particularly hostile toward Murphy and Piscopo, as he believed the two isolated themselves from the rest of the cast.{{sfn|Hill|Weingrad|2011|p=214}}
=Post-''SNL'' career=
After SNL, Rocket worked steadily in film, with roles in such films as Hocus Pocus, Earth Girls Are Easy, It's Pat, Steal Big Steal Little, How I Got into College, Dances with Wolves and Dumb and Dumber, often playing comic foils.
On television, in addition to guest spots on several 1980s sitcoms, he played antagonist network president Ned Grossberg on the cyberpunk series Max Headroom, Richard Addison (brother to Bruce Willis's David Addison) on the comedy-drama Moonlighting, and Adam, an angel of death, on Touched by an Angel.{{cite web| url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0734236/| publisher=Internet Movie Database| title=Charles Rocket: Filmography| access-date=April 22, 2007}} He later guest starred in other series including Wings as Danny, a long time friend to Brian Hackett (Steven Weber), 3rd Rock from the Sun as Grant, a physics professor, and The King of Queens as Steve Moscow, a Russian contractor who is hired to remove mold from Doug and Carrie Heffernan's house.
In addition to his acting work, Rocket played accordion on the David Byrne-produced B-52's album Mesopotamia on the track "Loveland",{{cite AV media notes
| title=Mesopotamia| title-link=Mesopotamia (album)| others=The B-52s| year=1990| publisher=Reprise/WEA| id=B000002LN6}} and the album Amarcord Nino Rota on the track "La Dolce Vita Suite", produced by Saturday Night Live music coordinator Hal Willner.{{cite web| title=Amarcord Nino Rota| date=September 5, 1981| url=https://www.discogs.com/Various-Amarcord-Nino-Rota/release/1845975| publisher=Discogs}}
He also provided the voice of Leo Lionheart Jr. in the "MGM Sing-Alongs" videos in 1996.{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=hotseries&q=se:%22MGM+sing-alongs%22|title=Results for 'se:"MGM sing-alongs"' [WorldCat.org]|website=www.worldcat.org}}
Personal life
Rocket married his college girlfriend, Beth Crellin, on board the battleship USS Massachusetts anchored in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1972.{{cite news |date=March 23, 1981 |volume=15 |issue= 11 |first=Richard K.|last= Rein |title=Charlie Rocket Blasts Off Amid the Turmoil of the 'Saturday Night Live' Massacres |work=People |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20078862,00.html}} Their son, Zane, was born in 1976.{{cite news |last=Starr |first=Michael |title=Charles Rocket, 56, TV and Movie Actor, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/20/arts/20rocket.html?ex=1186977600&en=98c90b05f6c59d1f&ei=5070 |work=The New York Times |agency=Reuters |date=October 20, 2005 |access-date=July 21, 2007}}{{cite news| title=R.I.P Charles Rocket - Tragic End For SNL Comic 25 Years After F-Bomb| url=https://nypost.com/2005/10/18/r-i-p-charlie-rocket-tragic-end-for-snl-comic-25-years-after-f-bomb/| work=New York Post| date=October 18, 2005| first=Michael| last=Starr}}
=Death=
Rocket was found dead in a field on his Connecticut property on October 7, 2005, with his throat slit. He was 56 years old. Ten days later, the state medical examiner ruled the death as suicide. The police investigation determined that there was no criminal aspect to the case.{{cite web |url=http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/backpage/charles-rocket-s-death-ruled-a-suicide-comedian-appeared-on/article_1cd34ff7-626f-554e-b207-b53df1cb7c88.html |title=Charles Rocket's death ruled a suicide |work=North County Times |date=October 18, 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022020932/http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/backpage/charles-rocket-s-death-ruled-a-suicide-comedian-appeared-on/article_1cd34ff7-626f-554e-b207-b53df1cb7c88.html |archive-date=October 22, 2012 |access-date=August 14, 2013}}
Filmography
= Film =
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 1984
|The Outlaws |Stanley Flynn | |
| 1985
|'Madman' Mac | |
| 1986
|Michael | |
| 1987
|Reno | |
| 1988
|Ted Gallagher | |
| 1989
|Leo Whitman | |
| 1989
|DeBains | |
| 1990
|Lieutenant Elgin | |
| 1991
|Ty Hedison | |
| 1993
|Detective Jones | |
| 1993
|Dave | |
| 1993
|Wally Littleton | |
| 1994
|Kyle Jacobsen | |
| 1994
|General Larchmont | |
| 1994
|Nicholas Andre | |
| 1995
|Sheriff Otis | |
| 1995
|Van Leer | |
| 1995
|Judge Thatcher | |
| 1997
|Jeffrey | |
| 1997
|Russ Trainor | |
| 1997
|The Killing Grounds |Mel Desordo | |
| 1998
|Dry Martini |Sam | |
| 1999
|Carlo's Wake |Derek Donovan | |
| 2000
|Firrikash / Slave Trader Guard (voice) |
| 2000
|Tex, the Passive-Aggressive Gunslinger |Bart | |
| 2002
|New Suit |Del Strontium | |
| 2002
|Bleach |Reverend Jim |Short film |
| 2003
|Tony D | |
| 2004
|Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light |Narrator (voice) | |
| 2008
|Mission Control 1961 (voice) |
=Television=
| class="wikitable"
!Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 1980–1981
|Various characters | |
| 1984
|Donald |Episode: "Picture Imperfect" |
| 1985
|Steel Collar Man |D5B |Television film |
| 1985
|Peter Gillespie |Episode: "Have I Got a Steele For You" |
| 1985
|Barry |Television film |
| 1985
|Bill Bauer |Episode: "The Yankee Clipper" |
| 1985–1989
|Richard Addison |6 episodes |
| 1986
|Marty Worhington |Episode: "Florence Italy" |
| 1987–1988
|Grossberg |4 episodes |
| 1988–1989
|Victor Beaudine |5 episodes |
| 1990
|Ron DeLisle |Episode: "Going Limp" |
| 1990
|Charles |Episode: "The Terminator" |
| 1990
|Lieutenant Stuyvesant |Episode: "The Family Jewels" |
| 1990–1992
|Dirk Riker, Michael Blake |2 episodes |
| 1991
|Sergeant Jake Melman |Episode: "Randall Without a Cause" |
| 1992
|Captain Midian Knight |11 episodes |
| 1993
|Dennis Lake |5 episodes |
| 1993
|Stitch |Miniseries, 3 episodes |
| 1994
|Danny |Episode: "Call of the Wild" |
| 1994
|Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman |Ryan Wiley |Episode: "Operation Blackout" |
| 1994–2003
|Adam |10 episodes |
| 1995–1996
|Judge Gil Fitzpatrick |20 episodes |
| 1996
|Oil Monster (voice) |
| 1996
|Chuck Dante |Episode: "Dante's Inferno" |
| 1996
|Carl Bishop |Episode: "To Serve and Protect" |
| 1997
|Davis |Episode: "Riverboat Queen" |
| 1997–1998
|Guru, Frederick Fournier, Security Guard (voice) |
| 1998
|Grant |Episode: "A Girl's Gotta Protect Her Assets" |
| 1998
|Charlie Addison |2 episodes |
| 1999
|Chopper Tim |Episode: "Road Rage" |
| 1999
|Superman: The Animated Series |Used Car Salesman (voice) |
| 1999
|Jippeq |Episode: "The Disease" |
| 1999
|Grant Ellis |Episode: "Three of a Kind" |
| 1999
|Don Grasso (voice) |
| 2000
|Danny |7 episodes |
| 2001
|Gary Hennings |Episode: "A Dick Replacement" |
| 2001
|Edwards (voice) |
| 2002
|Don Dinkins |Episode: "Father and Son Reunion" |
| 2003
|Crewcut (voice) |
| 2003
|Steve |Episode: "Steve Moscow" |
| 2004
|Donny DePalma |Episode: "Pas de Deux" |
= Video games =
| class="wikitable"
!Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 2001
|Nym | |
| 2002
|Nym |
| 2002
|Ajax | |
= Music videos =
- 1989 "Yer So Bad" by Tom Petty
- 1991 "King of the Hill" by Roger McGuinn with Tom Petty
- 1997 "Good Year" by The Refreshments
Notes
{{reflist|30em|refs=
{{cite news |first=Gus |last=Wezerek |title=The 'S.N.L.' Stars Who Lasted, and the Ones Who Flamed Out |work=The New York Times |date=2019-12-14 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/14/arts/television/SNL-history.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=2019-12-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191214233933/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/14/arts/television/SNL-history.html |archive-date=2019-12-14 |url-status=live
|quote=Some of the names here will be familiar only to die-hard fans; others, like Murphy, defined what was funny for generations of viewers.}}
}}
Bibliography
- Hill, Doug and Weingrad, Jeff (1986). Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. New York, Beech Tree Books/William Morrow. {{ISBN|0-688-05099-9}}.
External links
{{Portal|Biography}}
- {{IMDb name}}
- {{memory-alpha}}
- {{WorldCat|id=lccn-no00073662}}
- [https://variety.com/2005/scene/markets-festivals/charles-rocket-1117931030/ Obituary for Charles Rocket] Variety. October 10, 2005.
- {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051025234958/http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/p_and_j/documents/05030762.asp |date=October 25, 2005 |title="Remembering a giant of the Providence underground." }} Phillipe and Jorge, Providence Phoenix. October 14, 2005.
- {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009105115/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051017/SCANNERS/51017001 |date=October 9, 2012 |title="Charles Rocket, R.I.P." }} Jim Emerson, RogerEbert.com. October 17, 2005.
{{s-start}}
{{s-media}}
{{succession box | title=Weekend Update anchor
with Gail Matthius 1981 | before=Jane Curtin and Bill Murray| after=Brian Doyle-Murray and Mary Gross| years=1980–1981}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rocket, Charles}}
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:American sketch comedians
Category:American male journalists
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American male video game actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American television journalists
Category:Male actors from Maine
Category:People from Bangor, Maine
Category:Rhode Island School of Design alumni
Category:Suicides by sharp instrument in the United States
Category:Suicides in Connecticut
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:21st-century American comedians