Gary Austin, Who Founded the Groundlings Improv Troupe, Dies at 75

[JSngry]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/arts/gary-austin-dead-groundlings-comedy-troupe-founder.html

Mr. Austin was a sought-after teacher whose relatively low profile outside the entertainment industry belied his broad footprint within it as the founder of the Gary Austin Workshops and the Groundlings Theater. Many of their alumni became big names in comedy, some starring on “Saturday Night Live.”

They include Will Ferrell, Phil Hartman, Lisa Kudrow, Pat Morita, Jon Lovitz, Kristen Wiig, Kathy Griffin, Helen Hunt, Melissa McCarthy and her husband, Ben Falcone. Bill and Cheri Steinkellner, the writers and producers of the sitcom “Cheers,” were also products of the Groundlings.

And so was Paul Reubens. Mr. Austin helped him develop the anarchic character Pee-wee Herman in the 1980s and even provided him with his gray suit.

Mr. Austin was born Gary Moore on Oct. 18, 1941, in Duncan, Okla. He grew up in Oklahoma, Texas and California, where his father worked for the Halliburton oil company. His parents were Nazarene Christians, and Mr. Austin told an interviewer in 2015 that his first childhood exposure to theater happened at church. He later performed two solo shows based on his childhood, “Church” and “Oil.”

A children’s theater in Corpus Christi, Tex., and the radio performances of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers rounded out his early experiences with the performing arts, he said.

“I wanted to be three things when I was really young in Texas: I wanted to be a preacher, I wanted to be a singing cowboy and I wanted to play center field for the Boston Red Sox,” he told the interviewer.

“My aim is to be totally present in the moment, and when I’m totally present in the moment I can do no wrong,” he said in 2015. “That’s a feeling I like to have, and I have it sometimes. If I had it 100 percent, I probably already would have gone off to heaven and would be enjoying eternal life.”

His survivors include his wife, Wendy McKenzie; a daughter, Audrey Moore; a sister; two brothers; a grandson; and three great-grandchildren.

[JSngry]

Look at the people who came out of The Groundlings. Second City has earned it's legend, but these guys...next wave, and every bit as impactful.

If only for Phil Hartman & Paul Reubens. And Lis Kudrow (The Comeback being a work of unique genius), attention should be paid. But growing up Nazarine damn near demand that it be.