Jacob Rodney Cohen, a stand-up comedian from New York, used the nickname “Rodney Dangerfield” for his performances. He was well recognized for his self-deprecating humor, which included being foolish, unattractive, inappropriate for a sexual partner, and often victimized.
“I don’t get no respect,” which became his catchphrase, was a reflection of his upbringing. He was a fatherless “ugly duckling” growing up as “Jacob Cohen” in a working-class Jewish household on Long Island in the 1920s and 1930s.
Rodney Dangerfield’s Date of Birth
Jacob Cohen was given the name Rodney Dangerfield on November 22, 1921, in Deer Park, New York.
Rodney Dangerfield’s Wife
In 1949, he tied the knot with Joyce Indig, his first wife. In 1962, they separated. He quickly realized his error, however, and in 1963 remarried her.
They have divorced once again in 1970, and Dangerfield was alone for 23 years until he wed Joan Child, his second wife, in 1993.
It was his third union. Joan, who was 32 years his younger, continues to organize memorial services and charitable events in honor of her husband.
Rodney Dangerfield’s Career
At the age of 15, Jacob Cohen began writing comedy, and by the time he was 19, he was making $12 a week performing on the infamous Catskills circuit.
He had already officially changed his name to “Jack Roy” at that point. His father, vaudevillian actor Phillip Cohen, who went by the stage name “Phil Roy,” was absent often and abandoned his wife and children as a result.
Rodney Dangerfield’s stage name remained “Jack Roy” until his death, although it is unclear why young Jacob decided to use it in his actual name.
Unsurprisingly, Jack Roy discovered that $12 a week was insufficient to sustain himself and his first wife, Joyce Indig, and he soon started working several sales jobs. After divorcing the year before, the pair remarried in 1963.
Jacob Cohen (now known as Jack Roy) never gave up on comedy, however. He met the show’s MC, Sally Marr while working as a singing waiter at a Brooklyn bar called the “Polish Falcon.”
She introduced her son, a different struggling comic, to him. They began engaging with a number of other fresh faces at a “Broadway” pharmacy named “Hanson’s,” trading ideas and wild jokes.
Here, Marr’s son, better known by his stage name “Lenny Bruce,” assisted him in developing the dejected and hopeless “Rodney Dangerfield” personality.
He developed his theatrical act while working as “Jack Roy” during the day and panhandling on “Broadway” at night as “Rodney Dangerfield” (a name taken from a Jack Benny character from the 1940s).
He put a lot of effort into perfecting the delivery of his on-stage persona—the “ugly schmuck” who never seemed to get a break.
Rodney Dangerfield made a total of 15 further appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” after his debut in 1967.
He had 72 appearances with Johnny Carson, 47 on “The Merv Griffin Show,” 28 features with Dean Martin, and more than 30 films, including the unexpected 1994 film “Natural Born Killers” by Oliver Stone.