Charles Grodin Biography

Writer, director, producer and comic actor Charles Grodin was known to most film audiences as the annoying accountant in 1988’s Midnight Run and the angry dad in the kids’ movie Beethoven (1992).

Grodin also used his droll, deadpan humor to good effect on TV talk shows, delivering tense moments as a churlish guest of Johnny Carson, David Letterman and others.

Grodin grew up in Pittsburgh and attended the University of Miami before deciding on acting. He studied drama in New York and much of his career was centered there.

Grodin made his Broadway debut in 1962. During the 1970s he played opposite Ellen Burstyn on stage for more than three years in the Neil Simon play Same Time Next Year.

Early in his screen career, Grodin was in the Elaine May and Mike Nichols set. He appeared in Nichols’s Catch-22 (1970) and then starred in May’s The Heartbreak Kid (1972) to good reviews.

Over the years Grodin was in many television and film productions, often as a sensitive and gentle-but-cynical character.

His films of the 1970s and ‘80s included King Kong (1976); Heaven Can Wait (1978); The Great Muppet Caper (1981, with Miss Piggy); The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981, starring Lily Tomlin); and the famous flop, Ishtar (1987, with Dustin Hoffman).

On TV Grodin had his own talk show (1995-98) and could be seen occasionally playing Louis C.K.’s doctor in Louie (2014-15).

Grodin also authored several books, including It Would Be So Nice If You Weren’t Here (1990), We’re Ready For You, Mr. Grodin (1994) and If I Only Knew Then… Learning From Our Mistakes (2007).