George Carlin was one of the popular actor, comedian, and a social critic from America who earned a $10 million net worth for his work. Known for his talent in Black comedy, George also discussed taboo subjects often like religion, politics, and psychology. He’s widely known among most influential and important stand-up comedians around and was also regarded as “dean of the counterculture comedians”. Born in 1937 in New York, George lived for 71 years before he died in 2008 in California.
Career
Before rising to stardom, George Carlin had joined the US Air Force where he got the training for radar technician. Afterwards, he also started working as DJ at KJOE radio station in Shreveport. However, he didn’t achieve any success in both these professionals in the initial leap. George met Jack Burns, one of his fellow DJs, in 1959 and the duo started their comedy team. When they arrived in California, the team of comedians shot their audition tape besides creating the morning show titled “The Wright Brothers” on KDAY. After spending a couple of years in team, both of them parted ways and started pursuing individual careers. They remained good friends nevertheless.
By late 1960s, George was earning around $250000 every year and in 1970s he decided to change his image as well as routine to morph into the persona which actually brought him all his stardom. Carlin’s initial fourteen stand-up comedy specials that he did for HBO were filmed during 1977. Starting late in 1980s, Carlin’s routines all focused on the socio-cultural criticism on the modern and evolving American society. It was quite often that he shared his thoughts on the modern political issues of the US and mocked the excesses American culture had. He also appeared on “The Tonight Show” quite often both as a guest host and as a performer during 3-decade era of Johnny Carson.
He also takes pride in hosting “Saturday Night Live” when it was first aired. In 2004, he made it to the second position on “Comedy Central list” featuring top 100 names in stand-up comedy behind Richard Pryor. However, he was still ahead of Lenny Bruce. The last HBO special that he did under the title “It’s Bad for Ya” was filmed only under 4 months before he died. In the same year when he died, Carlin was posthumously given “Mark Twain Prize for American Humor”.
Personal Information
George Carlin was younger son to Patrick Carlin who worked as advertising manager for “The Sun” and had immigrated from County Donegal, Ireland. His mother Mary Beary had Irish ancestry as well. Even though he belonged to Catholic family, George Carlin rejected to take that religion for himself. His parents had a separation when George was no more than 2 months old and the reason behind that was excessive alcoholism of his father. His mother raised him with the older brother named Patrick.
Carlin met with Brenda Hosbrook in Dayton, Ohio back in 1960 and they married a year later. They had just one child named Kelly who was born in 1963. The renewed their wedding vows eleven years after marrying in Las Vegas.
