John Ratzenberger

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Date of Birth : Apr 6th 1947

American actor. He is best known for his role as Cliff Clavin in the sitcom Cheers.

Ratzenberger was living in London when he began his career in the performing arts. His first role was a Patron in The Ritz (1976). He appeared in minor roles in movies including Firefox; A Bridge Too Far; Superman as a missile controller; Superman II as the NASA control man; Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as “Major Bren Derlin”; Motel Hell (1980) as a punk rocker; Outland as a doomed mine worker named Tarlow, and Gandhi (1982), playing as an American Lieutenant.

Ratzenberger is best known for playing mail carrier Cliff Clavin on the sitcom Cheers. Ratzenberger had read for the part of Norm Peterson, but was rejected; sensing an opportunity, he asked if they had written a bar know-it-all, which the producers decided was a great idea.

Cliff became known for his outlandish stories of plausible half-truths, irrelevant trivia, and ignorant misinformation, and Cliff and Norm, the primary customer characters, became iconic bar buddies. Ratzenberger, provided the voice for an animated version of Cliff on The Simpsons 6th season episode “Fear of Flying”.