Leno, Jay 1950-

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LENO, Jay 1950-

PERSONAL: Born James Douglas Muir Leno, April 28, 1950, in New Rochelle, NY; son of Angelo and Cathryn Leno; married Mavis Nicholson, November 30, 1980. Education: Emerson College, graduated, 1973. Hobbies and other interests: Antique motorcycles and automobiles.

ADDRESSES: Home—Los Angeles, CA. Office—c/o NBC Enterprises, 3500 Olive Dr., 15th Fl., Burbank, CA 91510-7885.

CAREER: Television personality, actor, comedian, writer. Rolls Royce auto mechanic and deliveryman; stand-up comedian at venues, including Carnegie Hall and Caesar's Palace; performed as opening act for Henry Mancini, Johnny Mathis, John Denver, James Brown, Tom Jones, and Perry Como; Good Times, CBS, writer, 1974; Jay Leno and the American Dream, Showtime, host and producer, 1986; The Tonight Show, NBC, exclusive guest host, 1987-92, host, 1992—. Appeared on television show episodes, including Laverne and Shirley, ABC, 1976; Alice, CBS, 1976; The Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. Show, CBS, 1977; Saturday Night Live, NBC, 1986; Baywatch, syndicated, 1989; Seinfeld, NBC, 1990; Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, NBC, 1990; Home Improvement, ABC, 1991; Mad about You, NBC, 1992; The Larry Sanders Show, 1992; Homicide: Life on the Street, NBC, 1993; The Nanny, CBS, 1993; Ellen, ABC, 1994; Dennis Miller Live, 1994; Friends, NBC, 1994; Caroline in the City, NBC, 1995; Third Rock from the Sun, 1996; Just Shoot Me, 1997; and Late Night with David Letterman, NBC. Other television appearances include Jay Leno's Family Comedy Hour, 1987; The 42nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, 1990; Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, 1995; and Our Planet Tonight. Appeared in films, including The Silver Bears, EMI Films, 1977; Fun with Dick and Jane, Columbia, 1977; American Hot Wax, Paramount, 1978; Americathon, Lorimar/Warner Bros., 1979; Collision Course, De Laurentiis Entertainment/Interscope Communications, 1988; Dave, Warner Bros., 1993; Wayne's World 2, Paramount, 1993; We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Amblin, 1993; The Flintstones, Universal/Hanna-Barbera/Amblin, 1994; Major League II, Warner Bros., 1994; The Birdcage (also known as Birds of a Feather), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1996; Meet Wally Sparks, Trimark, 1997; Contact, Warner Bros., 1997; In & Out, Paramount, 1997; and Mad City, Warner Bros., 1997.

AWARDS, HONORS: Writers Guild of America nomination, 1987; Emmy Award for Best Musical or Variety Series, 1995, and Outstanding Technical Direction, 1996, for the Tonight Show; Emmy Award for Best Musical or Variety Series nomination, 1996 and 1997, for the Tonight Show; Best Political Humorist, Washingtonian Magazine; Tonight Show named Favorite Television Show in Europe and TV Guide Favorite Late Night Show.

WRITINGS:

(Editor) Headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings from America's Newspapers, photographs by Gary Bernstein, cartoons by Jack Davis, Warner (New York, NY), 1989.

(Editor) More Headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings from America's Newspapers, photographs by Joseph Del Valle, cartoons by Jack Davis, Warner (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor) Headlines III: Not the Movie, Still the Book: Real but Ridiculous Samplings from America's Newspapers, photographs by Joseph Del Valle, cartoons by Jack Davis, Warner (New York, NY), 1991.

(Editor) Headlines IV: The Next Generation: More Out-of-This World Headlines from the Bestselling Series, photographs by Joseph Del Valle, cartoons by Jack Davis, Warner (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor) Jay Leno's Headlines. Books I, II, III, Wings (New York, NY), 1992.

(Editor) Jay Leno's Police Blotter: Real-Life Crime Headlines from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Andrews McMeel (Kansas City, MO), 1994.

(With Bill Zehme) Leading with My Chin, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

(Author of introduction) Jon Macks, Heaven Talks Back: An Uncommon Conversation, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1998.

(Author of introduction) Faces of Time: Seventy-five Years of Time Magazine Cover Portraits, edited by Frederick Voss, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

(With Dennis Homstrom and others) The Complete Idiot's Guide to Motorcycles, Alpha Books (Indianapolis, IN), 2001.

(Author of introduction) Dennis Adler, The Art of the Sports Car: The Greatest Designs of the Twentieth Century, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Born in New Rochelle, New York, and raised in Andover, Massachusetts, late-night television host Jay Leno began his show-business career as a standup comedian. Performing his comedy routines around the country, making as many as three hundred appearances a year, Leno eventually procured a spot as the guest host of the popular late-night program The Tonight Show, which starred Johnny Carson. With Carson's retirement from the show, Leno stepped in as his successor, beating out other contenders, including David Letterman. Now dubbed by the media "The King of Late Night," Leno's Tonight Show began topping late-night television ratings in 1995 and became completely dominant by the late 1990s.

Leno's 1996 autobiography, Leading with My Chin, details his rise to fame from small comedy clubs to his late-night television success. The son of an Italian-American father and a Scottish mother who immigrated to the United States alone at the age of eleven, Leno has apparently always had a heart for comedy. His fifth-grade report card read: "If Jay spent as much time studying as he does trying to be a comedian, he'd be a big star." Leno's autobiography does not break from his comedic tendencies. In the book, he light-heartedly shares anecdotes of his rise to fame, including early gigs in mental institutions and strip clubs. One memorable appearance Leno describes in his book is performing for a group of Orthodox Jews only to find that the audience was really expecting to be entertained by a Yiddish storyteller.

Leading with My Chin is not the first book that Leno wrote. He capitalized on his affiliation with The Tonight Show to compile and edit more than four hundred newspaper headlines, material from one of the show's featured routines, to create Headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings from America's Newspapers. Over the years, five more Headlines books have emerged. When the first Headlines was published in 1989, Booklist reviewer Steve Weingartner, citing the book's entertaining material and the popularity of Leno, stated, "This material should attract an avid audience." Excerpts from the book include, "Researchers call murder a threat to public health" and "Condom week starts with a cautious bang." When More Headlines was published in 1991, a Kliatt reviewer concluded that Leno's "follow-up is equally humorous." Book five in the Headlines series concentrated on crime headlines, but is similar to the first four books.

Critics and fans often point to Leno's record as a fundraiser for charitable causes. The royalties from his second book, More Headlines, were donated to a foundation that funds pediatric AIDS programs. The "niceguy image," as perceived by some reviewers of Leading with My Chin, is at odds with the expectations raised by a Hollywood autobiography. Alex Tresniowski in People, pointed out that "no one is criticized, no action regretted, no demon wrestled with" in Leading with My Chin. Tresniowski described the book as "a homey, joke-filled whitewash of any splotches on Leno's squeaky-clean facade." Entertainment Weekly reviewer Bret Watson questioned how Leno survived the battle to inherit Johnny Carson' s throne as host of The Tonight Show as well as the inside story on Leno's "agonizing decision to fire Helen Kushnick, his manager of seventeen years." Watson was left wishing Leno had offered "insights into his private struggles or intriguing perspectives on the famous people he has known." New York Times Books Review contributor Bill Carter felt that such criticism was beside the point. "That's not what Mr. Leno is about; he is about performing," Carter wrote.

Few would quarrel with the assertion that Leno is one of the hardest-working entertainers in Hollywood. His rare absences from The Tonight Show have been precipitated by serious illness; otherwise, he is at his interviewer's desk five nights each week. While he has a staff to help him prepare his monologues and other well-known bits, he contributes mightily to the writing of each episode, often completing the next night's monologue after finishing a show. While he makes light of politics, observers have also noted a distinct point of view in his comedy, making him a force to be reckoned with during election years. Not surprisingly, presidential candidates vie for the opportunity to be on The Tonight Show. In an essay for the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, a contributor stated: "Leno is perceived as a hard worker and a perfectionist, thus endearing him to other hardworking Americans." According to Peter Bart in Variety, "With his relentless twinkle, he works the room, works the press, works the charity circuit. He is the professional good guy who has usurped the place of the naughty neurotics. And he is definitely a winner."

Leno once told People, "When I was a kid growing up . . . I had dyslexia. My mother told me that I would always have to work twice as hard as the other kids just to get the same grades. It's the same now. I'm not better than anybody else doing this job; I just think maybe I work harder than some."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Adler, Bill, The World of Jay Leno: His Humor and His Life, Carol Publishing (New York, NY), 1992.

Carter, Bill, The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1994.

Contemporary Newsmakers, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1989.

Leno, Jay, editor, Headlines: Real but Ridiculous Samplings from America's Newspapers, Warner (New York, NY), 1989.

Leno, Jay, Leading with My Chin, with Bill Zehme, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1996.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, St. James (Detroit, MI), 2000.

Walker, Jay, The Leno Wit: His Life and Humor, Morrow (New York, NY), 1997.

PERIODICALS

Advertising Age, May 25, 1992, p. 24; November 30, 1993, pp. 1-3.

Booklist, January 1, 1990, p. 870.

Boston, May, 1992, pp. 16-21.

Chicago Tribune Books, January 14, 1990, p. 4.

Cosmopolitan, December, 1993, pp. 70-72; May, 1996, pp. 180-185.

Entertainment Weekly, August 14, 1992, pp. 20-27; February 11, 1994, p. 63; April 22, 1994, p. 12; November 3, 1995, p. 19; March 15, 1996, p. 52; October 11, 1996, pp. 84-85; November 8, 1996, p. 11.

Esquire, October, 1995, pp. 98-105.

Insight on the News, July 22, 1991, pp. 42-44.

Kliatt, January, 1991, p. 55.

Ladies Home Journal, February, 1997, p. 166.

Life, November, 1993, p. 100.

Newsweek, June 29, 1992, p. 56; January 25, 1993, pp. 60-63.

New Yorker, November 9, 1992, pp. 46-65.

New York Times, January 30, 1994, p. 28; September 24, 2000, Marshall Sella, "The Stiff Guy vs. the Dumb Guy," p. 72.

New York Times Book Review, November 17, 1996, p. 24.

People, December 24, 1990, pp. 56-59; August 23, 1993, pp. 46-49; October 14, 1996, p. 39; May 6, 2002, Michael A. Lipton, "Funny Man at Work," p. 64.

Playboy, December, 1990, pp. 57-69; October, 1996, pp. 51-60.

Publishers Weekly, January 15, 1996, p. 320.

Redbook, July, 1992, pp. 48-51.

Runner's World, November, 1994, pp. 42-45.

Time, March 16, 1992, pp. 58-62.

TV Guide, April 11, 1992, pp. 16-21; August 15, 1992, p. 27; January 30, 1993, pp. 49-51; August 28, 1993, pp. 18-23; October 22, 1994, pp. 28-33; October 5, 1996, pp. 14-22; April 13, 2002, Jason Gay, "The Hardest-Working, Least Talked About, Most Popular Man in Show Business," p. 16.

Vanity Fair, July, 1991, pp. 48-50.

Variety, May 29, 2000, Peter Bart, "Building the Leno Legend," p. 2.

Washingtonian, November, 1993, pp. 76-80.

Woman's Day, March 10, 1992, pp. 36-40.