Woody Harrelson names the greatest comedy actor of all time: “He was hysterical”
Having cut his teeth in comedy during a star-making run on Cheers, Woody Harrelson had every reason to fear that he’d end up being typecast when he decided to try his luck in movies.
After all, playing a main role on one of the highest-rated shows on television for almost 200 episodes across eight years is more than enough to sear a character into the cultural consciousness, so he decided the easiest way to separate himself from Woody Boyd was to play the exact opposite on the big screen.
While several early roles channelled his likeable charisma and inherent goofiness, Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers was the turning point. It showed Harrelson in a different light and proved he had an infinite number of strings to his bow, which became even clearer a couple of years later when he earned his first Academy Award nomination for embodying the title character in The People vs Larry Flynt.
Comedy was his way of getting a foot in the Hollywood door, and it’s a genre he’s returned to frequently. Now that he’s comfortably ensconced as one of the industry’s most versatile character actors and occasional leading men who can play any kind of part in any kind of movie, it’s been a long time since Harrelson has woken up in a cold sweat wondering if he’ll always be the Cheers guy.
He’s been a fan of the medium since well before his screen debut, and he’s had the same comedy idol since childhood. While it’s hardly an earth-shattering proclamation for the star to call someone who was literally nicknamed ‘The King of Comedy’ as the greatest of all time, it’s an opinion many would agree with.
“When I was young, I used to love Jerry Lewis,” he told The Mirror. “I thought he was hysterical. He played that character who you would consider dumb or dim-witted. I used to think he was really cool.” Throughout his 60-year career, Lewis captivated multiple generations and earned his stripes as one of the most important, influential, and popular American comics in history.
From his early days buddying up with Dean Martin through to hit movies, sitcoms, scene-stealing supporting parts, and being terrorised by Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, Lewis’ influence was so vast and all-encompassing that he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Harrelson was born in 1961, so he was merely a nipper when his comedy idol’s career was at its apex, with the likes of The Nutty Professor, The Jerry Lewis Show, The Family Jewels, The Patsy, and his frequent stint as a guest host on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson presumably making for formative childhood viewing.
Plenty of people tend to hold the people they grew up watching in high esteem for the rest of their lives, and considering Harrelson still sees Lewis as his all-time favourite comedian 50 years after first watching him onscreen, it seems safe to say that he won’t be dislodged from the top of the pile.
