The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Andy Kaufman

Publish date: 2024-03-20

People loved Andy Kaufman ... but they hated his alter ego, Tony Clifton, a chauvinistic nightclub performer whom Kaufman purposely portrayed as the most loathsome person imaginable.

Kaufman always maintained the illusion that Clifton was an entirely separate human being whom he claimed to have first encountered in 1969, according to Vice, and donned a thick wig, sunglasses, and mustache for the role. Clifton was played as a seedy, bigoted, homophobic, and unbearably obnoxious parody of toxic masculinity, as explained by The Denver Post, who regularly got booed off the stage, presumably to Kaufman's delight. To keep the charade going, Kaufman often enlisted his friend Bob Zmuda to star as Clifton in performances and interviews, in which the nightclub performer would rail about how "that piece of sh*t" (meaning Kaufman) was ruining his reputation by doing fake performances as him. Postmodern? You bet. Surely enough, Clifton remains "alive" today, presumably played by Zmuda.

Kaufman truly tested the limits of Clifton's odiousness when, as a condition for doing Taxi, he mandated that the producers also hire Clifton, on a separate contract, according to Doyle Green. Once this was done, Kaufman intentionally sabotaged Clifton's career by appearing on-set (as Clifton) drunk, late, and with two women alleged to be prostitutes. Clifton insulted everyone on the set, spewed vulgarities, and caused one actor to walk off furious. The next day, Kaufman arranged for Clifton to be thrown off the set, publicly, by studio security.

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