Learnin' about Cuba, havin' some food...
(The book on the girl's desk at 1:31 in the clip is "Land of Truth and Liberty.")
The actor who played Mr. Pizza Guy was Taylor Negron — the cousin of Chuck Negron. You might not know those names, but you know Mr. Pizza Guy and you know the voice that sang "Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine/I never understood a single word he said/But I helped him a-drink his wine."
Chuck Negron, one of the lead singers in Three Dog Night, announces that his cousin Taylor Negron has just passed away at the age of 57: "I just wanted all you people who knew him and loved him to know he just passed."
Chuck Negron — who appeared in an episode of the reality show "Intervention" — wrote an autobiography with a title that seems preordained: "Three Dog Nightmare."
Here's Taylor Negron, telling his story — "I am very California Gothic" — on an episode of the podcast The Moth. "The Marlboro man met the Virginia Slims woman and had... me."
There's a nice comments thread going on over at Metafilter, including:
I met Taylor a couple years ago at a dinner party a friend was having. At one point there was just about six of us sitting around a kitchen table, and he began to tell the story of coming home one day to discover his neighbor had been horrifically and bizarrely murdered, and he managed to convey what an awful shock and trauma it was, and yet it was one of the most hilarious stories I've ever heard. Everyone in the room was howling with laughter, tears running down our cheeks, but he wasn't playing for a cheap laugh at the expense of the victim — this hilarious, crazy story about finding a dead body and then having to go do standup at the improv a couple hours later. But it was told with respect. I still am in awe about the guy's ability to tell a story, the ability to make you laugh while telling you something completely chilling. He was smart and empathetic and warm and charming. I saw him a couple months later in a hardware store and to my surprise he remembered me, and even pointed out that we had another mutual friend. Sweet man.
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From IMDB:
(Negron) played the role of a pizza delivery guy three times - Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Bio-Dome (1996) and Vamps (2012).
The Pizza Delivery Trilogy. R.I.P.
I am Laslo.
Bit part actors are anonymous yet highly recognized. He had an amazing body of work, like a Zeilg/Forrest Gump of movies and television.
Spicoli had a right to be pissed. It was supposed to be double-cheese and sausage. Dude, there was no sausage on that pizza.
"Dude, there was no sausage on that pizza."
Low-budget film.
"Bit part actors are anonymous yet highly recognized. He had an amazing body of work, like a Zeilg/Forrest Gump of movies and television."
Here's IMDB's list of Taylor Negron's TV and movie roles. It is amazing. I think it would be fun to be an actor like that, getting plenty of work, but never having to be bothered by becoming too well known and too defined by other people thinking about you over-enthusiastically.
You might be recognized but only in the I-think-he's-in-something or he's-that-guy-that's-in-all-those-things kind of way.
I went to high school with a guy that managed some success in Hollywood. He was a good story-teller, and had a tremendous personality. I'm sure Mr. Negron was cut from the same cloth.
This was one of the best movies. Another was the dazed and confused. Funny, when you look at the actors in those movies and where they are today. They have won oscars and are leading actors/actresses. Yet, another point, the movies then were so funny that today we do not get like that. Today movies are dirty/filthy humor and violent. Those were really the good old times.
I teach U.S. History. I have wanted to have a pizza delivered to my classroom ever since I became a high school History teacher. I have asked three principals so far for permission..none granted yet. but one day......
My Favorite Martian.
There is nothing like a dame!
How shall we remember him.
Sam Dawson
Harvey Milk
"We cower as you point your fingers telling us to support our troops. You and the smarmy pundits in your pocket– those who bathe in the moisture of your soiled and blood-soaked underwear– can take that noise and shove it."
He was the love interest of Rodney Dangerfield's daughter in the movie 'Easy Money'. He did a great riff on a Cyrano de Bergerac like scene, saying "I am the man!"
Negron's deadpan storytelling is captured in the dirty-joke documentary "The Aristocrats," available on Youtube in nine parts -- he's at 4:06 of Part 7, but watch the previous four minutes for context.
Can't stand Sean Penn, but he was good in that role.
Missing is Sean Penn's greatest line: "You dick."
Never heard of him; never saw that movie. Never knew the names of 3DogNight.
Don't feel any sense of loss for not knowing.
Phil 3:14 said...
My Favorite Martian.
There is nothing like a dame!
How shall we remember him.
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My Favorite Martian and Damn Yankees for me. You can stop watching South Pacific after the first 10 minutes/3 music numbers.
I was in high school when this movie came out. I wish I had seen it then or had been aware of it then, it explains a lot of what was going on and the mentality of my classmates. We didn't have cable which kept me further out of the loop.
Whoops I though Mr Hand died. It was actually the guy delivering the pizza.
Though I guess I should have gotten the hint when it said he died at 57. Since Fast Times was made in 82, which was more than 30 years ago, that would have made Mr Hand be in his 20's. That will teach me to read better.
Any way, never heard of Taylor Negron, but his face looks SO familiar. He was in so many movies always playing the bit part
I think he was on Seinfeld, Maybe law and order. he did a TON of bit parts.
He was the hairdresser that Elaine went to hoping to get the valet's bad BO smell out of her hair. Flushing of the follicles and ta-MAY-da sauce.
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