Dave Foley (Actor)

Comedian Dave Foley at The Commies in Culver City, California. (Photo: Frank Micelotta / Getty Images)

About Dave Foley

This bright, baby-faced Canadian comic actor/writer gained a following as a member of "The Kids in the Hall", a daring comedy troupe which also included Mark McKinney, Kevin McDonald, Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch. The sometimes bawdy bunch began performing its quirky brand of sketch comedy on the Toronto stage in the early 1980s, segued to Canadian TV late in the decade on CBC and was subsequently exported to the US, first on HBO, later on Comedy Central and late night CBS. As a writer-performer, Foley distinguished himself with a distinctive flair for the absurd as he pushed the limits of irony. Production on the series wrapped in spring 1994.

The Toronto native began writing comedy in high school, teaming with the incipient "Kids in the Hall" while appearing at the Second City theater group in 1984. Still billed as David Foley, he did his first screen acting starring in a little-seen, low-budget (and reportedly dreadful) comedy-thriller "High Stakes" (1987) that was partially financed by a consortium of five Canadian independent TV outlets. He was more widely seen--though only afforded a single line--in the sleeper comedy "Three Men and a Baby" (1987). American TV viewers may have first spotted Foley in a series on PBS's "American Playhouse" based on Owen Johnson's "The Lawrenceville Stories" about a New Jersey prep school in the 1910s. He was cast as George Baker Smith, aka the Welsh Rabbit, in "The Prodigious Hickey" (1987) and its two sequels "The Return of Hickey" (1988) and "The Beginning of the Firm" (1989).

Foley made his official feature acting debut in "It's Pat" (1994), the film based on Julia Sweeney's androgynous "Saturday Night Live" character which was barely released and subsequently sent to the video store. He was cast in the major supporting role of Chris, Pat's equally androgynous love interest. In 1996's "Kids in the Hall BRAIN CANDY", Foley played only minor roles and was the only member of the troupe who did not get a screenwriting credit. (Fellow Kids later sniped at his non-participation in both the creation and promotion of the film.)

Not surprisingly, the small screen has been kind to this unthreatening, Bob Newhart-like actor. He starred in the NBC sitcom "NewsRadio" (1995-99), heading a talented ensemble as the director of a 24-hour all-news station.

Notes

"I always assumed that famous people have something about them that makes them more recognizable than ordinary people. Now that I am, I guess, a famous person, I realize that, no . . . It's just being on television." --Dave Foley to PEOPLE, December 4, 1995

"['NewsRadio' character] Dave Nelson is a thinly disguised version of me--an inept but well-meaning, vaguely professional man." --Dave Foley, quoted in "NewsRadio" PR, 1995