Jim Gaffigan
Jim Gaffigan is an actor, born 1966.
Jim Gaffigan's main job is stand-up, and the material is famously domestic: food, laziness, fatherhood, religion, delivered with almost no profanity, though he allows himself the occasional exception. The specials, Mr. Universe, Obsessed, Cinco and Quality Time among them, have all drawn Grammy nominations. Born in Elgin, Illinois in 1966, he has been on screen since the late nineties, starting with a soldier in Three Kings and Roy on That '70s Show.
For twenty years the casting was obvious and mostly affable: Larry Johnson in Super Troopers and its sequel, the boyfriend Chris Grandy in 13 Going on 30, Coach Murphy in 17 Again, Lowell in Away We Go, Phil in Going the Distance, and a steady voice career as Lorenzo in Luca, Van Helsing in two Hotel Transylvania films and Smee in Peter Pan & Wendy.
The interesting turn came late. From around 2015 he took a run of unfunny parts and was good in all of them: James McDonough in Experimenter, Paul Markham in Chappaquiddick, Zeke Slaughter in Them That Follow, George Westinghouse in Tesla, Paul Jederman in Above the Shadows. The comic warmth curdles usefully. Nobody plays a decent man going along with something better than he does.
He has since gone back to comedy without giving up the other lane, with Edsel Kellogg III in Unfrosted, plus Greedy People and Maintenance Required.
Movies (45)
- Luca (2021)
- Hotel Transylvania: Transformania (2022)
- Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018)
- 13 Going on 30 (2004)
- 17 Again (2009)
- Three Kings (1999)
- Peter Pan & Wendy (2023)
- Greedy People (2024)
- Super Troopers (2001)
- Maintenance Required (2025)
- Unfrosted (2024)
- The Love Guru (2008)
- Super Troopers 2 (2018)
- Duck Duck Goose (2018)
- Hot Pursuit (2015)
- Tesla (2020)
- Going the Distance (2010)
- Target Number One (2020)
- Experimenter (2015)
- Above the Shadows (2019)
- It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)
- Playmobil: The Movie (2019)
- Away We Go (2009)
- Chuck (2017)
- Strip Search (2004)
- An Almost Christmas Story (2024)
- Entropy (1999)
- Staten Island Summer (2015)
- Chappaquiddick (2018)
- Troop Zero (2019)
TV (20)
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015)
- The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (2005)
- Conan (2010)
- That '70s Show (1998)
- Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993)
- CBS News Sunday Morning (1979)
- Portlandia (2011)
- Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012)
- Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist (1995)
- Ed (2000)
- Flight of the Conchords (2007)
- A Little Late with Lilly Singh (2019)
- Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? (2019)
- Full Circle (2023)
- Comedy Central Presents (1998)
- Marvel's Hit-Monkey (2021)
- My Boys (2006)
- Dark Side of Comedy (2022)
- Love, Inc. (2005)
- The Ellen Show (2001)
Books (1)
Where to start with Jim Gaffigan
Two doors here, and they lead to different actors. For the comedian, Super Troopers is the right start, since the part is small and he steals it by underplaying while everyone around him mugs. Then Luca, where he voices a father and gets a surprising amount of feeling out of a sea monster.
For the other one, go straight to Chappaquiddick. He plays a lawyer standing in a room where a decision is being made badly, and the whole performance is discomfort held very still. Them That Follow and Tesla confirm it was not a fluke.
Away We Go and It's Kind of a Funny Story sit between the two modes, a comic actor doing sad-adjacent work, which is where he is most watchable.