Tracey Ullman (born 30 December 1959) is a British-born, now U.S. citizen...(More)

Tracey Ullman (born 30 December 1959) is a British-born, now U.S. citizen comedian, actress, singer, dancer, screenwriter, and author, who is most famous for being the host of her eponymous variety television show. Her early appearances were on such British TV sketch comedy shows as A Kick Up the Eighties (with Rik Mayall) and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield ). She also appeared as Candice Valentine in Girls On Top with Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. She emigrated to the U.S. and ended up having her own network television series, The Tracey Ullman Show, from which The Simpsons was spun off in 1989. She later found even greater success producing programmes for HBO, including Tracey Takes On..., for which she has won numerous awards. She has also appeared in many feature films. Early life Tracey Ullman was born in Slough, Buckinghamshire (now Berkshire) to Antony Ullman, her Polish Roman Catholic father, and Dorin Ullman, her British mother, who was of Roma heritage. Antony had been a Polish soldier who was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Ullman's father sold furniture, booked travel, and brokered marriages. He also translated amongst the Polish community in the UK. When Ullman was six years old, her father died of a heart attack. He was fifty years old. In an effort to cheer the family up, Tracey recounted putting on shows in her mother's bedroom, performing along side her older sister, Patty. That first show was entitled, The Patty Ullman Show. "I was a spin-off!" recalled Ullman. In her nightly performances Tracey was able to mimic anyone and everyone, including neighbors, family members, friends, even celebrities. Soon after, Ullman's mother remarried. At age 12, one of Tracey's headmasters took notice of the young star's future potential, and recommended her to the Italia Conti Academy stage school. Although the school gave Ullman her first taste of the stage, she does not look back at the period as being a joyous one. Ullman's biggest drawback was her dark features. During auditions, they would line the children up, and select them for roles. Young Ullman, ethnically, did not fit the criteria (the criteria being blonde-haired and blue-eyed). At age 16, Ullman began to find jobs as a dancer. One of her big breaks came when she landed a role in Gigi in Berlin[1]. Upon returning to England, she joined the "Second Generation" dance troop[2]. She also began to appear in variety shows. The exposure led to her being cast in numerous West End theatre musicals, including Grease, and The Rocky Horror Show[3]. During this time Ullman learned of a competition at London's Royal Court Theatre[4] for an improvised play about club acts. Deciding to enter, Ullman created the character Beverly, a born-again Christian chanteuse. Ullman proved to be a big hit and won the title of Best Newcomer Award[5]. At this point, the BBC became interested, and offered her her own show. [edit] Music career In 1983, Ullman succeeded as a singer on the legendary punk label Stiff Records[6], although her style was more comic romantic than punk[7]. She had six songs in the British Top 100 in less than two years, including her first hit "Breakaway" (famous for her performance with a hairbrush as a microphone); the international hit cover version of label-mate Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know," which went to #2 in the UK (#8, U.S. - MacColl also sang backing vocals on Ullman's version), and which became the theme song to most of Ullman's later television series; and the cover of Madness's "My Girl," which Ullman changed to "My Guy's Mad At Me." [8] (The "My Guy" video featured the British politician Neil Kinnock, at the time the Leader of the Opposition)[9].) Her songs were over-the-top evocations of 1960s and 1970s pop music with a 1980s edge, "somewhere between Minnie Mouse and The Supremes" as Britain's Melody Maker put it, or "retro before retro was cool", as a retrospective reviewer wrote in 2002. Her career received another boost when the video for "They Don't Know" featured a cameo from Paul McCartney[10]; at the time Ullman was filming a minor role in McCartney's film Give My Regards To Broad Street[11]. Her final hit was Sunglasses (1984) whose video featured Adrian Edmondson. During this time, she also appeared as a guest VJ on MTV in the United States[12]. In October 2006, Ullman recounted her music days in the BBC Four documentary series, If It Ain't Stiff.[13] [edit] Television career [edit] Early years Along with her stint in the music world, Ullman also moved into television. She began starring in sketch comedies for the BBC, A Kick Up the Eighties, and Three of a Kind (with Lenny Henry and David Copperfield). In 1985, she donned a blonde wig and took the role of a promiscuous gold digger named "Candice Valentine" on the ITV sitcom Girls On Top, but jumped ship after one season. At this point, US television beckoned, and television producer, legend, James L. Brooks, came calling. The two had discussed working together previously, but it wasn't until 1987 that the two formally got together and created The Tracey Ullman Show. Ullman played a variety of characters, completely disguised with the help of makeup, prosthetics, and even padding. The show was the first commercial hit for then unknown FOX channel. Ullman proved to be a triple threat - she could act, sing, and dance, as well as providing ethnic accents for some of her characters (Tracey is one of the few non-Australian actors that can deliver lines in a realistic Australian accent). Paula Abdul began her career with the series, serving as the show's choreographer. The then practically unknown Abdul even used her early music recordings for the series' strenuous dance numbers. The Tracey Ullman Show earned four Emmys and spawned The Simpsons, which was featured in very simple cartoon shorts (created by cartoonist Matt Groening at the behest of Ullman Show producer James L. Brooks). In 1992 Ullman filed a lawsuit against Twentieth Century Fox in Los Angeles Superior Court over profits from the later half hour incarnation of The Simpsons for $2.5 million of the estimated $50,000,000 USD in profits reaped from merchandising. Years after her show went off the air, she said jokingly in a late night television interview that she hoped to one day have a regular 2-minute spot on The Simpsons. Despite the lawsuit, Ullman would later (hypocritically) provide the voice of "Emily Winthrop", a British dog trainer on The Simpsons in Bart's Dog Gets an F. As Ullman had continued her professional relationship with former producer Brooks, only the studio and not Brooks was named in the suit. In fact, Brooks was allowed to videotape his testimony because in an only-in-Hollywood twist he was at that time directing Ullman in his later de-musicalized film I'll Do Anything. Ullman was unsuccessful and viewed by some as trying to greedily cash in on a project that she could not show in court that she had any hand in creating. However, supporters point out that she only sought a small portion of merchandising from the studio's slice that she felt her contract for the cancelled show entitled her to (a 12 page contract that was hastily signed only hours before filming on the first The Tracey Ullman Show was to commence). A settlement was reached where Ullman would receive a portion of the profits made from the show, although no amount was ever made public. [edit] HBO It wasn't until 1993 that Ullman dove back into television, but this time, cable television. Two specials were created allowing Ullman to bring life to a host of new characters. The first, Tracey Ullman: A Class Act, took a humorous jab at the British class system, and co-starred Monty Python alum Michael Palin.[14] For the second, Tracey Ullman Takes On New York, Ullman decided to take on a more American topic, New York City.[15] Both specials drew critical praise, and even awards. HBO became interested in doing a Tracey Takes On series, and Tracey and her husband, Allan McKeown, set up production in Los Angeles in 1995. Al Hirschfeld portrait of Tracey Ullman and Tracey Takes On... Tracey Takes On... premiered 24 January 1996, on HBO. Each episode would focus on a topic for Ullman to 'take on' and examine. The series would have two to three long sketches, and many small interview-styled bits, with her many characters commenting on that week's topic. Unlike the FOX show, Tracey Takes On... was shot on location, not filmed in front of a live audience. The added freedom, and no censorship, cable television provided, fared well with Ullman. Nothing was off limits, and a lesbian kiss with Tracey Ullman Show alum, Julie Kavner, kicked off the series' first episode.[16] Ullman played both men and women of many ethnicities during the series' run, including an Asian donut shop owner, a (male) cab driver from the Middle East, and an African-American airport security guard.[17] The series went on to win eight Emmys, numerous CableACE, and a host other media awards, and was critically acclaimed. In 1997, it won the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series Emmy Award for the episode Vegas.[18] In 1998, it was also published in book form by Ullman. The series was also awarded GLAAD awards for its portrayal of gay and lesbian characters. Tracey returned to HBO in the summer of 2005, with a special of her autobiographical one-woman stage show Tracey Ullman: Live and Exposed,[19] which garnered her another Emmy nomination.[20] On 26 December 2005, Tracey Takes On... The Complete First Season was released on DVD from HBO Home Video. The Complete Second Season of Tracey Takes On... was released 27 June 2006. Both sets contain commentary, extended footage, as well as the original HBO pilot. Showtime Ullman will make her return to television in 2008 in State of the Union for Showtime. Production is due to begin in the fall of 2007, with an order of at least five episodes. The series takes a satirical look at a day in the life of America. Ullman will create new characters as well as impersonate famous ones. The series will be shot in a cinematic fashion. Other notable work Ullman was the modern-day cartoon voice of Little Lulu[22]. She also had a recurring role as Ally McBeal's unconventional psychotherapist, a role which won her an American Comedy Award[23]. Ullman co-starred with Carol Burnett in the television adaptation of Once Upon a Mattress. Ullman played Princess Winnifred, a role originally made famous by Burnett on Broadway, who took on the role of the evil Queen.[24] On 5 December 2006, Tracey was inducted into the Museum of Television and Radio along with likes of Carol Burnett, Lesley Visser, Lesley Stahl, Jane Pauley, and Betty White, in the She Made It category.[25] To date Ullman has seven Emmy wins. In 2006, Ullman released a bestselling knitting book called Knit 2 Together [26], with friend Mel Clark.[ Movie career Along with her television work, Tracey has featured in many films throughout her career. After the cancellation of The Tracey Ullman Show in 1990, she made her starring debut along side Kevin Kline, River Phoenix and Joan Plowright in I Love You To Death. Ullman has also appeared in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Nancy Savoca's Household Saints, Small Time Crooks, A Dirty Shame, and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride. She had a small role in Paul McCartney's film "Give My Regards to Broad Street" Ullman portrayed "Mother Nature" in the 2007 romantic-comedy film, I Could Never Be Your Woman, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Ullman acted as creative consultant on the 2006 Dreamworks feature, Flushed Away. Tracey has signed on to voice along with such actors as Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Christopher Lloyd and Sigourney Weaver in the computer-animated The Tale of Despereaux.[29] Ullman also had a bit part as an interviewee from stock footage in the movie The Queen with Helen Mirren.[30] The footage was used without her permission. Personal life Ullman is married to producer Allan McKeown; they have two children, Mabel Ellen McKeown (b. April 1986) and John Albert Victor McKeown (b. August 1, 1991 in Santa Monica). Ullman announced in 2005 her intentions to become an American citizen; she became one in December 2006 [31]. In 2006, Ullman topped the list for the "Wealthiest British Comedians", with an estimated wealth of 75 million (Less)