Bid to enjoy lunch with actor, John Ratzenberger in Long Beach, CA!
With more than three decades of movie making and theater, John Ratzenberger has enjoyed success as a screenwriter, director, producer, and multi-Emmy-nominated actor. He is also an accomplished entrepreneur and philanthropist. John’s career began in earnest in the early 1970s, when he formed the improvisational theater duo Sal’s Meat Market, which performed to standing-room-only crowds throughout Europe for 634 straight performances. In 1982, John accepted a writing assignment for CBS in Los Angeles. On the day he was scheduled to return to London, he auditioned for a role in the upcoming Cheers. At the time of his audition, the character of the postman did not exist. As he walked out of the room, he turned and asked the creators “Do you have a bar know-it-all?” They didn’t know what that was, so John gave them five minutes of improv, demonstrating exactly what it meant with the perfect Boston accent. They loved what they saw and Cliff Clavin was born. In the history of television, only a handful of series has achieved the worldwide success of Cheers, on which John portrayed Cliff for the show’s entire 11-year run. To this day, thanks to daily syndication, Cliff continues as one of America’s most beloved characters.
John is better known to the younger generation as the only actor to voice a character in every Pixar film including the witty Hamm the piggy bank in Toy Story 1 (1995), Toy Story 2 (1999), Toy Story 3 (2010) and Toy Story 4 (2019); P.T. Flea, the circus ringmaster in Bug’s Life (1998); the lovable snow monster Yeti in Monsters, Inc.(2002) and Monsters University (2013); the ever-changing school of Moonfish in Finding Nemo (2003); the philosophical character The Underminer in The Incredibles (2004) and The Incredibles 2 (2018); a Mac-truck in Cars (2006), Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017); Mustafa, the head waiter in Ratatouille (2007); as John, a human in WALL-E (2008), the construction worker in Up! (2009); Gordon the guard in Brave (2012); Harland in Planes (2013), Fritz in Inside Out (2015); Earl in The Good Dinosaur (2015); Bill the Crab in Finding Dory (2016); and Juan Ortodoncia in Coco (2017). Pixar artists always find a way to include John’s recognizable eyebrows and mustache. Pixar’s creators call John their “good luck charm.” John’s latest project is a partnership with actor and director Kevin Sorbo in the upcoming film East Texas Miracle – a faith-based project (a genre John is very active with).
In all, John has acted in 38 major motion pictures including blockbusters such as Superman, Star Wars: Episode V –The Empire Strikes Back and Gandhi to independent films like his hit The Woodcarver. He has written, directed, or produced hundreds of television projects over the span of his career making him the 6th largest-grossing actor of all time based on box-office receipts.