[music]
[film clip]: Who's Rich? >>Narration: Rich Little is a man of many faces,
over a hundred ninety at last count.
His impersonations of famous celebrities have enchanted audiences for over 25 years.
Like many, Rich is a Southern California transplant. He was born in Canada
and now enjoys the good life with his family in a new home in Malibu.
>>Q: You like living by the sea. >>Rich Little: Yes, I like living by the sea.
I lived in Hollywood for so many years and went crazy down there because it's a jungle
and the smog and everything and a lot of weird people
of course, I was one of them but uh
I thought, you know if you could live in Malibu or somewhere out of the city
it would be like not living in LA but living in LA you know and
the air is better here and the view is spectacular.
The house is great so I'm very happy. >>You're a doctor's son.
>>That's right. Middle class, upper middle class >>Yep
>>That's not, you're not supposed to come from that background. >>That's right,
certainly a comedian doesn't. He comes from uh Greenwich Village or uh
you know, knocks around New York playing all the little clubs and dives
>>Yeah >>and works his way up that way.
Not me >>What was happening to you?
>>Well I, I, I was such a movie fan. I always loved actors and when I'd see them up
there on the screen I wanted to be them and the only way I could do that
was to imitate them so I would go
[imitating Jimmy Stewart] I'm, I'm seeing a Jimmy Stewart picture and I'd
I'd come home from the movie and I'd just act it all out for my folks.
I'd do all the voices and I found after a while people were fascinated with this
and I thought, well gosh how can I make money doing this, you know
and when finally, somebody did pay me for it, I thought maybe I got something here.
>>The physical part, that's important.
>>Yeah, the physical part is important you know because you mentally,
when you do an impression, you have to really
become the person you're doing mentally.
You can't physically, I mean you can do little things, you know
[imitating Jack Benny] a Benny look maybe, you know, or something or
[imitating Jack Lemmon] a Jack Lemmon look but
you have to think the person you're doing
[imitating James Mason] so if you're doing someone like James Mason
or something you have to, you just, there are certain movements
that James did that you find yourself doing
[imitating David Niven] the same of course with David Niven pulling his ear
and doing all those little bits that he did, or with anybody, with
[imitating Johnny Carson] Ah! Johnny Carson
[imitating Ronald Reagan] or uh doing the president and uh, I uh
I could be doing radio uh and I would still, even though it was radio,
be going through all the, all the motions and the head bopping
and uh the tight lip and all that stuff even though it's radio
and they're not seeing me, because uh the physical is, is so important.
>>When you first did your Reagan impression for the president >>mm-hmm
>>what are the butterflies like? >>Oh!
I can't tell you what I was going through because, first of all,
is he gonna laugh? And if he doesn't then what do I do?
[film clip]: >>[imitating President Reagan] Well...
[laughter] [applause]
there he goes again [laughter]
Before I, before I start speaking tonight I, I would like to say something [laughter]
>>Little: I think that he really wants to be able to imitate me doing him
because now when I, when I see him, I'll say to him,
are you doing you, or are you doing me?
>>Q: The reaction to the news that you did Stacy Keach's voice
for three episodes of Mike Hammer,
it's still reverberating. You fooled everybody.
I mean, we only knew this after the fact.
>>Well, that was the idea and I'm always a little reluctant to talk about
dubbing for people because I never know whether the producer wants me to or not
because the idea really is to fool the people that it's really them, so if you tell the public
before it's shown they'll all be listening for it, you see.
>>How many of these uh, these show doctoring voice things have you done?
>>Well, the first one I did years ago was
[imitating Tony Curtis] was Tony Curtis. I did Tony Curtis for a movie.
I love you Spartacus... [normal voice] No, I didn't do that [laughter]
[imitating Tony Curtis] yonder lies the castle of my father [laughter]
but I did Tony Curtis for some movie he made in Italy that he walked out on
before he dubbed his voice. He just took off. It was a real turkey.
I could understand why after looking at it and I went in and did his voice for that,
a low-budget film and there wasn't much publicity on that
and this was early in my career uh but then I did Peter Sellers for the
Trail of the Pink Panther where they were using his double for the opening scene
where he's trying to find the Panther and, and sort of in the dark, and he's trying to get the
safe open, and they used Peter Sellers real double for that and I just did the voiceover.
>>That's amazing. At that point there was no Peter Sellers at all.
>>That's right, that's right. They'd actually done it with an actor,
a French actor from Paris
[imitating Inspector Clouseau] but, but it didn't have the, the 'Clouseau'
It didn't have that 'eh' sound of his, you know that [indistinct]
This guy was just doing it with a French accent and it really didn't sound like him
so I came and did it again.
>>In closing, can you do the 'that's all folks'?
[mimicking Porky Pig] >> You mean as Porky Pig?
We been talking to Rich Riddle, uh Little
and th th th... that's all folks! [mimics Looney Tunes music]
[mimicking Elmer Fudd] That rascally rabbit! [mimicking Bugs Bunny] Eh goodnight!
>>Little: Uh in a word uh...
>>Q: [sneezes] How about a sneeze? [laughter]
>>But you know when I sneeze like that
this has happened in restaurants many times
people say, who are you doing? >>Who are you doing?
>>I get this all the time. I'll just, I'll just sneeze. Who's that?
You know, so I've had that happen to me so many times that now
when I feel a sneeze coming on, I'll do it as somebody, you know
I'll do Donald Duck [mimics Donald Duck]
and uh or I'll sneeze as Louie Armstrong [mimics Louie Armstrong]
[laughter]
uh but it's funny. You should do that because
that's happened to me a lot in restaurants. Who are you doing?