Charles Rocket

Charles Adams Claverie (August 28, 1949 – October 7, 2005), known by stage names Charlie Hamburger, Charlie Kennedy and Charles Rocket, was an American actor, comedian, musician, and television news reporter. He was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, played the villain Nicholas Andre in the film Dumb and Dumber, and Dave Dennison in Disney's Hocus Pocus.

Charles Rocket
Portrait of Charles Rocket
Born
Charles Adams Claverie

(1949-08-28)August 28, 1949
Bangor, Maine, U.S.
DiedOctober 7, 2005(2005-10-07) (aged 56)
Canterbury, Connecticut, U.S.
Cause of deathSuicide
NationalityAmerican
Other namesCharlie Hamburger
Charlie Kennedy
Alma materRhode Island School of Design
OccupationActor, comedian, musician, television news reporter
Years active1980–2005
Spouse(s)
Beth Crellin
​
(m. 1972)​
Children1

Early life

Rocket was born in Bangor, Maine, the son of Mary Aurelia (Fogler) and Sumner Abbott "Ham" Claverie.[1][2] He attended the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1960s and was part of the Rhode Island underground culture scene in the 1970s that also included Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and film director Gus Van Sant.[3]

Career

Rocket appeared sometimes with his friend Dan Gosch as superheroes "Captain Packard" and his faithful sidekick "Lobo".[4] In an RISD yearbook, the duo appeared in a photo at the Rhode Island State House with then-Governor Frank Licht. Rocket made several short films and fronted his band, the Fabulous Motels, on accordion (which he used in an SNL sketch about a crazed criminal who uses an accordion to kill his dates and is killed himself by a bagpipe band). He later anchored the local news at Channel 12 WPRI-TV and at KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colorado under his own name, and WTVF Nashville under the name Charles Kennedy. He made his network debut on Saturday Night Live in 1980, using the name Charles Rocket.[4]

Saturday Night Live

Rocket was cast for the 1980–81 season, which followed the departure of the remaining members of the show's original cast and executive producer Lorne Michaels.[5] Singled out by new executive producer Jean Doumanian, he was promoted as a cross between Bill Murray and Chevy Chase.[6] Rocket was tapped to anchor Weekend Update, and was featured in more sketches than any other male cast member that season with the exception of Joe Piscopo.

Rocket portrayed recurring character Phil Lively, a game show host who took his larger-than-life persona home and treated life as if it were a game show. His celebrity impersonations on SNL included Ronald Reagan, David Rockefeller, Prince Charles, and Marlin Perkins. He also hosted "The Rocket Report”, a series of filmed segments where he posed as a roving reporter around New York, which reviewers in later years mentioned as one of the few consistently strong parts of Doumanian's shows.[7]

Dismissal

The Saturday Night Live episode of February 21, 1981, hosted by Dallas star Charlene Tilton, featured a parody of the famed "Who shot J.R.?" story arc from the then-popular nighttime soap. During the show a plot line had Rocket and Tilton flirting while other cast members expressed jealousy, leading to Rocket being shot in the chest by a sniper in the middle of a sketch. In the show's closing moments, as cast members gathered with the host to say good night, Tilton asked Rocket how he felt about being shot. In character, Rocket replied "Oh man, it's the first time I've ever been shot in my life. I'd like to know who the fuck did it."[8] He attempted to explain it away as an extemporaneous exclamation.

Due partially to the violation of broadcast standards, along with negative press regarding the new cast and declining ratings for both the series and the network in general, NBC replaced Doumanian with Dick Ebersol after one further episode. Ebersol, who placed the show on hiatus for a month to retool, dismissed Rocket, along with several of the writers and fellow cast members Gilbert Gottfried and Ann Risley, before the next episode. A writers' strike led to the suspension of the rest of the season, and when the show returned in October 1981, Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy were the only cast members who were held over from Doumanian's era. Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live revealed that Rocket was particularly hostile toward Murphy and Piscopo, as Doumanian had set him, Denny Dillon, and Gail Matthius to be the show's biggest stars, only to have all three receive mixed-to-negative reviews about their performances and to have Murphy and Piscopo upstage them all.[9]

Post-SNL career

Rocket recovered from this early-career setback and worked steadily in film, with roles in such movies as Hocus Pocus, Earth Girls Are Easy, It's Pat, Steal Big Steal Little, How I Got into College, Dances with Wolves, and Dumb and Dumber, often playing comic foils.

On television, in addition to guest spots on several 1980s sitcoms, Rocket played antagonist network president Ned Grossberg on the cyberpunk series Max Headroom, Richard Addison (brother to Bruce Willis's David Addison) on the comedy-drama Moonlighting, and Adam, an angel of death, on Touched by an Angel.[10]

In addition to his acting work, Rocket played accordion on the David Byrne-produced B-52's album Mesopotamia on the track "Loveland", [11] and the album Amarcord Nino Rota on the track "La Dolce Vita Suite", produced by Saturday Night Live music coordinator Hal Willner.[12]

He also provided the voice of Leo Lionheart Jr. in the "MGM Sing-Alongs" videos in 1996.[13]

Personal life

Rocket married his college girlfriend, Beth Crellin, on board the battleship USS Massachusetts anchored in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1972.[14] Their son, Zane, was born in 1976.[15][16]

Death

Rocket was found dead in a field on his Connecticut property on October 7, 2005, with his throat slit. He was 56 years old. Ten days later, the state medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. The police investigation determined that there was no criminal aspect to the case.[17]

Filmography

Television

Video Games

Music videos

Notes
  1. Morse, Susan (February 1, 2011). "Charlie (Claverie) Rocket was a local boy, WHS grad". Hampton Union. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  2. "Mary Aurelia Fogler". Archived from the original on February 17, 2015. Retrieved 2015-02-17.
  3. "RIP, Charles Rocket Remembering a giant of the Providence underground". The Providence Phoenix. October 14, 2005. Archived from the original on September 22, 2015. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  4. "Comedian Charles Rocket's death was suicide". Seattle Times. October 17, 2005. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  5. Gus Wezerek (December 14, 2019). "The 'S.N.L.' Stars Who Lasted, and the Ones Who Flamed Out". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved December 16, 2019. Some of the names here will be familiar only to die-hard fans; others, like Murphy, defined what was funny for generations of viewers.
  6. Hill & Weingrad 2011, p. 390.
  7. Hill, Doug; Weingrad, Jeff (December 15, 2011). Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. Untreed Books. p. 423. ISBN 9781611872187.
  8. Hill & Weingrad 2011, p. 215.
  9. Hill & Weingrad 2011.
  10. "Charles Rocket: Filmography". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 22, 2007.
  11. Mesopotamia (Media notes). The B-52s. Reprise/WEA. 1990. B000002LN6.CS1 maint: others (link)
  12. "Amarcord Nino Rota". Discogs.
  13. https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=hotseries&q=se%3A%22MGM+sing-alongs%22
  14. Rein, Richard K. (March 23, 1981). "Charlie Rocket Blasts Off Amid the Turmoil of the 'Saturday Night Live' Massacres". People. 15 (11).
  15. Starr, Michael (October 20, 2005). "Charles Rocket, 56, TV and Movie Actor, Dies". The New York Times. Reuters. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
  16. Starr, Michael (October 18, 2005). "R.I.P Charles Rocket - Tragic End For SNL Comic 25 Years After F-Bomb". New York Post.
  17. "Charles Rocket's death ruled a suicide". North County Times. October 18, 2005. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2013.

Bibliography
  • Hill, Doug and Weingrad, Jeff (1986). Saturday Night: A Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. New York, Beech Tree Books/William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-05099-9.


Media offices
Preceded by
Jane Curtin and Bill Murray		 Weekend Update anchor
with Gail Matthius 1981
1980–1981		 Succeeded by
Brian Doyle-Murray and Mary Gross
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