Bob Saget
Bob Saget
Born/Date of Birthday: 17 May 1956,
Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: 9 January 2022
Height: 1.92 m
Spouse: Kelly Rizzo (m. 2018), Sherri Kramer (m. 1982–1997)
Children: Aubrey Saget, Lara Melanie Saget, Jennifer Belle Saget
Siblings: Gay Saget, Andrea Saget
Robert Lane Saget (May 17, 1956 – January 9, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, television host, and director. His television roles included Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House (1987–1995) and its Netflix sequel Fuller House (2016–2020). He hosted America's Funniest Home Videos from 1989 to 1997. Saget was also known for his adult-oriented stand-up routine. He provided the voice of the future Ted Mosby on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014.
Saget's 2014 comedy album, That's What I'm Talkin' About, was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.
Early life
Saget was born in Philadelphia on May 17, 1956, to a Jewish family. His father, Benjamin (August 28, 1917 – January 30, 2007), was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Rosalyn "Dolly" (February 12, 1925 – February 15, 2014), was a hospital administrator. Saget lived in Encino, California before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from Abington Senior High School in 1975. Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher, Elaine Zimmerman, saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films.
Saget attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1978. Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California but quit a few days later. Saget describes himself at the time in an article by Glenn Esterly in the 1990 Saturday Evening Post: "I was a cocky, overweight twenty-two-year-old. Then I had a gangrenous appendix taken out, almost died, and I got over being cocky or overweight." Saget talked about his burst appendix on Anytime with Bob Kushell, saying that it happened on the Fourth of July, at the UCLA Medical Center and that they at first just iced the area for seven hours before taking it out and finding that it had become gangrenous.
Career
1987–2001
Following a short stint as a member of CBS' The Morning Program in early 1987, Saget was cast as Danny Tanner in Full House, which became a success with family viewers, and landed in the Nielsen ratings' Top 30 beginning with season three. In 1989, Saget began as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, a role he held until 1997. During the early 1990s, Saget worked both on Full House and AFV simultaneously. In 2009, he returned to AFV for the 20th-anniversary one-hour special co-hosted with Tom Bergeron.
Saget directed the 1996 ABC television movie For Hope, which was inspired by the life story of his sister, Gay Saget, who died from scleroderma three years earlier.
In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Dirty Work, starring Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange. Released one year after he left his long-running role as host of America's Funniest Home Videos, the film received broadly negative reviews from critics and earned low box office returns. However, it has since become a cult favorite, due partially to Artie Lange's later popularity on The Howard Stern Show where the film is sometimes mentioned, often in unflattering terms.
In 1998, Saget made a cameo appearance as a cocaine addict in the stoner comedy Half Baked.
2001–2022
Saget had a sitcom on The WB titled Raising Dad. It co-starred Kat Dennings, Brie Larson, and Jerry Adler and lasted only one season. He was host of NBC's game show 1 vs. 100 from 2006 to 2008.
He served as the voice of the future Ted Mosby, who narrated the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which ran for nine seasons from September 19, 2005 to March 2014.
His HBO comedy special, That Ain't Right, came out on DVD on August 28, 2007. It is dedicated to his father, Ben Saget, who died at age 89 on January 30, 2007, due to complications from congestive heart failure.
From 2005 to 2010, Saget had a recurring role in four episodes of the HBO TV series Entourage playing a parody of himself. He would later appear in the 2015 feature film based on the series.
Saget wrote, directed, and starred in Farce of the Penguins, a parody of 2005's March of the Penguins, which was released direct-to-DVD, in January 2007.
Saget appeared in the Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone for a limited four-month engagement. He played "Man in Chair" while Jonathan Crombie, who normally played the character on Broadway, was with the national tour of the musical. On January 4, 2008, Saget's caricature was unveiled at Sardi's Restaurant.
In April 2009, he debuted in a new sitcom along with his co-star Cynthia Stevenson on ABC called Surviving Suburbia. The series, which was originally to air on The CW, ended after one abbreviated season.
In 2010, Saget starred in an A&E series Strange Days in which he follows others in different activities and lifestyles, documenting their adventures in unusual ways.
In 2014, his book Dirty Daddy was released, in which he writes about his career, comedy influences, and experiences with life and death. He embarked on a small tour in support of the book, including the Pemberton Music Festival, where he introduced Snoop Dogg prior to performing his own set. In the same year, he toured Australia for the first time, with a stand-up show called Bob Saget Live: The Dirty Daddy Tour. The show was performed in the major cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth.
In 2015 and 2016, he guest-starred in two episodes of Grandfathered, starring and produced by his Full House co-star, John Stamos.
From 2016 to 2020, Saget reprised his role as Danny Tanner for ten episodes of Full House's sequel series, Fuller House, including its series premiere and finale.
In 2019, he was announced as host of ABC's Videos After Dark. Saget also hosted the game show Nashville Squares on CMT.
In 2020, Saget launched a podcast titled Bob Saget's Here For You with Studio71. He also competed in season four of The Masked Singer as "Squiggly Monster".
Charity work
Saget was a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. His scleroderma efforts benefited such celebrities as Scary Movie star Regina Hall. In an interview with Ability Magazine, Saget discussed how his sister was diagnosed with scleroderma at 43 and died at 47. She had previously been misdiagnosed numerous times.
Death
On January 9, 2022, Saget, who was staying at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes in Orange County, Florida, was found unresponsive in his room by the hotel staff around 4 p.m. EST. He was pronounced dead upon arrival of emergency responders. No cause of death was immediately available, but there was no foul play or drug use detected at the scene. He had performed a stand-up set in Jacksonville the previous evening.
Full House co-star John Stamos released a statement upon his death, writing that he was "broken" and "gutted".
