Tony Clifton
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Tony Clifton is a fictional character created and often played by comedian Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s.
Clifton appeared to many as simply an abusive lounge singer who sometimes opened for Kaufman. For a brief time, it was unclear to some that Clifton was not a real person. News programs actually interviewed Clifton as Kaufman's opening act. The interviews would usually turn ugly whenever Kaufman's name came up, because Clifton would claim that Kaufman was using him to get rich. But in reality, there was more to it than that. In many cases, the singer was Andy Kaufman. Promoters who thought they had caught on to the joke started to hire Clifton to perform a show in their town because he was cheaper than booking Kaufman. But Kaufman had the last laugh: most of the time that this happened, it wasn't Kaufman performing as Clifton at all. It would be Kaufman's brother Michael or his good friend, Bob Zmuda, with Kaufman making unannounced appearances onstage during Clifton's act.
Clifton (possibly played by Zmuda) appeared once on Late Night with David Letterman, where he was interviewed and sang a medley with the band. Clifton was hired to appear on an early episode of ABC's Taxi sitcom, but ended up being escorted out of the building by security guards when he threw a fit on stage, an incident depicted in the biographical film Man on the Moon.
Another infamous moment occurred on Dinah Shore's talk show Dinah!. During a cooking segment with Shore and Sammy Davis Jr., Clifton insulted them and then dumped a pan of eggs over Shore's head. This happened live on the air and the show's producers quickly cut to a commercial as Clifton was escorted out of the studio. The tape of the incident was destroyed although the moments leading up to it can be seen in the documentary Andy Kaufman's Really Big Show.
Kaufman and Zmuda wrote a screenplay for a Tony Clifton biography.
Tony Clifton still makes the odd appearance (believed to be played by Zmuda), most notably in the days leading up to May 16, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of Kaufman's death.
The character of Tony Clifton can still be seen doing appearances and stand up comedy.
