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| Birth Name(s) : David Wayne Spade |
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Full David Spade Biography
Spade, the youngest of three sons, was born in Birmingham, Michigan to Judith M., a writer and magazine editor, and Wayne M. Spade, a sales representative. His father moved the family to Scottsdale, Arizona, but abandoned them not long afterwards. His brothers are Bryan Spade and Andy Spade; Andy Spade is the husband of famed designer Kate Spade and CEO of Kate Spade New York. Spade's mother eventually remarried, but David's stepfather committed suicide in 1981 (David was 17 years old at the time). He was brighter than his second-grade classmates, and took advanced math and reading. "I was a somewhat bright child, which led to different sorts of problems. In second grade, I moved up to fourth grade math and reading. There was an option to skip a grade but I was so tiny and microscopic that my mom was, like, 'He has enough now, let's not make his life totally terrible.' I stayed in my grade but alienated everyone by being, like, 'brainiac." Spade graduated from Saguaro High School in 1982. He then went on to Arizona State University, where he earned a degree in business in 1986. He was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. ASU has had a long-running sketch comedy show, Farce Side Comedy Hour, from 1985 to present. Spade performed standup for the show on numerous occasions. Before finding success as a comedian, Spade made money by working as a busboy, a valet parker, and a skateboard shop employee.
Spade, who was encouraged by friends to follow a career in comedy, pursued stand-up not long after college. His stepfather's suicide, followed closely by his best friend's death in a motorcycle crash, propelled him into comedy full time.
With the help of friend and fellow comedian Dennis Miller, he joined Saturday Night Live in 1990 as a regular cast member and writer. Here he made popular his well-known sarcastic, smart aleck character in a number of sketches, some of which include: a flight attendant who bids an unpleasant "Buh-Bye" to each passenger as they disembark; a receptionist for Dick Clark who, as a matter of policy, asks even the most recognizable face "And you are?"; and, most famously, the bitingly sarcastic Hollywood Minute reporter who assaults celebrities with a series of one-liners. Other characters include Christy Henderson from the Gap Girls, and Karl from the Karl's Video sketches. He has also done impressions of famous celebrities, such as Brad Pitt and Michael J. Fox. According to interviews with Spade, most of the material that he wrote early on was given to Dana Carvey to perform on the show. Due to his relatively low work rate, he was in danger of being fired as a performer, until the Hollywood Minute segment secured his position.
Spade's attempt at a film career was met with mixed success, movies such as Joe Dirt and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star were critical and financial failures. He worked with fellow Saturday Night Live cast member Chris Farley in the movies Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, in an attempt to form a modern-day Laurel and Hardy. The two were planning a third movie together, but things came to a tragic end when Farley died of a drug overdose at the age of 33. Spade did not attend Farley's funeral because he "could not be in a room where Chris was in a box."
Although he received several offers to star in his own TV shows, he turned them down and joined the ensemble cast of Steven Levitan's office sitcom Just Shoot Me!, which ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003. He played to type as a sarcastic receptionist Dennis Finch, which earned him several Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.
Spade hosted both the Teen Choice Awards and SpikeTV's Video Game Awards in 2003. He voiced characters on several episodes of Beavis and Butt-head, and produced his own TV series Sammy in 2000. From 2002 to 2006, Spade regularly appeared in commercials for Capital One, with Nate Torrence where he plays the employee of a fictional rival company whose policy toward honoring credit card rewards (and just about everything else) is "always no." In 2004, he joined the cast of 8 Simple Rules, following the untimely death of the sitcom's star, John Ritter.
Along with actors Elijah Wood and Gary Oldman, Spade is one of the voice talents for the sixth and 7th installment of the platform game series Spyro, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. He provides the voice for Spyro's dragonfly companion, Sparx. Spade refused to reprise the role of Sparx in it's direct sequel, The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, and was replaced with Billy West.
Spade is hypoglycemic. He has a tattoo of Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes, personally applied by Sean Penn during an interview for SNL's Spade in America.
Spade is very sensitive to light. The combination of bright lights on-set and working under sunlight while filming Black Sheep caused permanent damage to his eyes. On his condition: "I have to wear a hat even indoors and flashes in particular freak me out. I even have to make them turn down the lights in the make-up trailers. I've become such a pain in the butt with this light-sensitive thing, it's a wonder they don't just shoot me." |
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