Dave Thomas (Actor)

This significant figure in TV sketch comedy of the late 1970s and early 80s has been busy ever since as a producer, director and writer. Arguably the brightest light of the stellar cast of "SCTV", Thomas became known for his dead-on celebrity impressions--his Bob Hope and Walter Cronkite were uncanny if a bit harsh--and iconoclastic wit. His Hope was a mean-spirited egotist utterly dependent on his writers while his Cronkite was a borderline senile windbag. Thomas worked particularly well with fellow writer-performer Rick Moranis who played Woody Allen to Thomas's Hope in a splendid sketch entitled "Play It Again Bob".

The pair created the popular brother act, Bob and Doug McKenzie, beer-driven co-hosts of a Canadian cable TV show "Great White North". Sort of a proto-"Wayne's World", this languid display of proletarian banality was "SCTV"'s wicked response to the CBC's dictum that all their TV shows contain a certain proportion of "Canadian content".

Thomas left "SCTV" in 1982 and released a comedy album with Rick Moranis, "Bob and Doug McKenzie's Great White North". The lager-loving duo were also featured on the big screen in "Strange Brew" (1983), a cultish comedy co-written and co-directed by Thomas and Moranis (the characters would be reprised for "The Animated Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie" in 2003, the same year the actors parodied Bob and Doug as the moose duo Rutt and Tuke in Disney's animated "Brother Bear"). He received an excellent showcase in "The Dave Thomas Comedy Show" (CBS, 1990), a five-week summer replacement series, but somehow his amorphous personality failed to register as the main attraction. His mimetic skills remained as sharp as ever, as his impersonation of Edward Woodward in a hilarious takeoff of "The Equalizer" ("The Intimidator") displayed.

Thomas' next project of note was "America's Funniest People" (ABC, 1990), a video compilation show, which he co-created and co-executive produced. He has also continued writing and directing other TV projects through the 90s. Thomas enjoyed a stint as a co-star of the popular Single Mom sitcom "Grace Under Fire" (ABC, 1993-98) starring Brett Butler. He proved much more than equal to the task of playing Russell Norton, a perpetually henpecked pharmacist friend of the protagonist, and he frequently appeared in such big screen comedies as "Boris and Natasha" (1992) as the villainous foreign spy Boris Badenov from the "Rocky & Bullwinkle" cartoons, "Coneheads" (1993), "Rat Race" (2001) and "The Aristocrats" (2005). Thomas continued to pop up in unexpected places: as a writer on Dennis Miller's short-lived pre-HBO late night talk show (1992); reprising his Bob Hope impression for Martin Short's "Primetime Glick" (2001, 2002); as a consulting producer on the short-lived animated series "The Mullets" (2003); as a writer and director on the series "Pet Star" (2003), Animal Planet's animal-centric "American Idol" talent show; and in a recurring role as the short-tempered Brit Trevor on the cult sitcom "Arrested Development" in 2005.

Thomas also enjoyed a lucrative side career as a voice actor on several animated projects, including "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill," "Mission Hill" and "Justice League."