| Charles Rocket | |
| Birth Name: | Charles Adams Claverie |
| Birth Date: | 28 August 1949 |
| Birth Place: | Bangor, Maine, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Canterbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Other Names: | Charlie Hamburger Charlie Kennedy |
| Alma Mater: | Rhode Island School of Design |
| Years Active: | 1980–2005 |
| 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, comedian, musician, and television news reporter. 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.
Rocket was born in Bangor, Maine, the son of Mary Aurelia (née Fogler) and Sumner Abbott "Ham" Claverie.[1] [2] He attended Winnacunnet High School[3] 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.[4]
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. He made his network debut on Saturday Night Live in 1980 as Charles Rocket.
Rocket was cast for the 1980–81 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. Rocket was tapped to anchor Weekend Update, and was featured in more sketches than any other male cast member that season, with the exception of Joe Piscopo.
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.[5]
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."
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.
Rocket recovered from this early-career setback and 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.[6] 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",[7] and the album Amarcord Nino Rota on the track "La Dolce Vita Suite", produced by Saturday Night Live music coordinator Hal Willner.[8]
He also provided the voice of Leo Lionheart Jr. in the "MGM Sing-Alongs" videos in 1996.[9]
Rocket married his college girlfriend, Beth Crellin, on board the battleship USS Massachusetts anchored in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1972.[10] Their son, Zane, was born in 1976.[11] [12]
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.[13]
| 1984 | The Outlaws | Stanley Flynn | ||
| 1985 | Fraternity Vacation | 'Madman' Mac | ||
| 1986 | Miracles | Michael | ||
| 1987 | Down Twisted | Reno | ||
| 1988 | Earth Girls Are Easy | Ted Gallagher | ||
| 1989 | How I Got into College | Leo Whitman | ||
| 1989 | Honeymoon Academy | DeBains | ||
| 1990 | Dances with Wolves | Lieutenant Elgin | ||
| 1991 | Delirious | Ty Hedison | ||
| 1993 | Brainsmasher... A Love Story | Detective Jones | ||
| 1993 | Hocus Pocus | Dave | ||
| 1993 | Short Cuts | Wally Littleton | ||
| 1994 | It's Pat | Kyle Jacobsen | ||
| 1994 | Wagons East | General Larchmont | ||
| 1994 | Dumb and Dumber | Nicholas Andre | ||
| 1995 | Steal Big Steal Little | Sheriff Otis | ||
| 1995 | Charlie's Ghost Story | Van Leer | ||
| 1995 | Tom and Huck | Judge Thatcher | ||
| 1997 | Murder at 1600 | Jeffrey | ||
| 1997 | Fathers' Day | Russ Trainor | ||
| 1997 | The Killing Grounds | Mel Desordo | ||
| 1998 | Dry Martini | Sam | ||
| 1999 | Carlo's Wake | Derek Donovan | ||
| 2000 | Titan A.E. | Firrikash / Slave Trader Guard (voice) | [14] | |
| 2000 | Tex, the Passive-Aggressive Gunslinger | Bart | ||
| 2002 | New Suit | Del Strontium | ||
| 2002 | Bleach | Reverend Jim | Short film | |
| 2003 | Shade | Tony D | ||
| 2004 | Narrator (voice) | |||
| 2008 | Fly Me to the Moon | Mission Control 1961 (voice) | Posthumous release |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980–1981 | Saturday Night Live | Various characters | ||
| 1984 | Hawaiian Heat | Donald | Episode: "Picture Imperfect" | |
| 1985 | Steel Collar Man | D5B | Television film | |
| 1985 | Remington Steele | Peter Gillespie | Episode: "Have I Got a Steele For You" | |
| 1985 | California Girls | Barry | Television film | |
| 1985 | Hardcastle and McCormick | Bill Bauer | Episode: "The Yankee Clipper" | |
| 1985–1989 | Moonlighting | Richard Addison | 6 episodes | |
| 1986 | Miami Vice | Marty Worhington | Episode: "Florence Italy" | |
| 1987–1988 | Max Headroom | Grossberg | 4 episodes | |
| 1988–1989 | Murphy's Law | Victor Beaudine | 5 episodes | |
| 1990 | Thirtysomething | Ron DeLisle | Episode: "Going Limp" | |
| 1990 | Doctor Doctor | Charles | Episode: "The Terminator" | |
| 1990 | Murder, She Wrote | Lieutenant Stuyvesant | Episode: "The Family Jewels" | |
| 1990–1992 | Quantum Leap | Dirk Riker, Michael Blake | 2 episodes | |
| 1991 | Parker Lewis Can't Lose | Sergeant Jake Melman | Episode: "Randall Without a Cause" | |
| 1992 | Tequila and Bonetti | Captain Midian Knight | 11 episodes | |
| 1993 | Flying Blind | Dennis Lake | 5 episodes | |
| 1993 | Wild Palms | Stitch | Miniseries, 3 episodes | |
| 1994 | Wings | Danny | Episode: "Call of the Wild" | |
| 1994 | Ryan Wiley | Episode: "Operation Blackout" | ||
| 1994–2003 | Touched by an Angel | Adam | 10 episodes | |
| 1995–1996 | The Home Court | Judge Gil Fitzpatrick | 20 episodes | |
| 1996 | The Adventures of Hyperman | Oil Monster (voice) | Episode: "Oceans a Leavin'" | |
| 1996 | Picket Fences | Chuck Dante | Episode: "Dante's Inferno" | |
| 1996 | The Pretender | Carl Bishop | Episode: "To Serve and Protect" | |
| 1997 | Grace Under Fire | Davis | Episode: "Riverboat Queen" | |
| 1997–1998 | The New Batman Adventures | Guru, Frederick Fournier, Security Guard (voice) | 3 episodes | |
| 1998 | Jenny | Grant | Episode: "A Girl's Gotta Protect Her Assets" | |
| 1998 | Cybill | Charlie Addison | 2 episodes | |
| 1999 | Tracey Takes On... | Chopper Tim | Episode: "Road Rage" | |
| 1999 | Used Car Salesman (voice) | Episode: "Superman's Pal" | ||
| 1999 | Jippeq | Episode: "The Disease" | ||
| 1999 | The X-Files | Grant Ellis | Episode: "Three of a Kind" | |
| 1999 | Batman Beyond | Don Grasso (voice) | Episode: "Hooked Up" | |
| 2000 | Normal, Ohio | Danny | 7 episodes | |
| 2001 | 3rd Rock from the Sun | Gary Hennings | Episode: "A Dick Replacement" | |
| 2001 | The Zeta Project | Edwards (voice) | Episode: "Change of Heart" | |
| 2002 | Greg the Bunny | Don Dinkins | Episode: "Father and Son Reunion" | |
| 2003 | Static Shock | Crewcut (voice) | Episode: "Shebang" | |
| 2003 | The King of Queens | Steve | Episode: "Steve Moscow" | |
| 2004 | Donny DePalma | Episode: "Pas de Deux" |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Nym | |||
| 2002 | Nym | |||
| 2002 | Age of Mythology | Ajax |