After years of doing it, you learn the difference between your ego and your opinion. When you're married you have to cut through that.
Beer. Now there's a temporary solution.
Don't eat me. I have a wife and kids. Eat them.
Getting out of jury duty is easy. The trick is to say you're prejudiced against all races.
Go ahead and play the blues if it'll make you happy.
I always enjoyed writing. I did playlets in high school, I did radio shows in college. That's one of the reasons I went down to Second City, because you could do acting and writing.
I grew up watching Bozo in Chicago. The original Bozo, Bob Bell, had a sort of gravelly voice.
I often say, if I wasn't part of the show I'd be a huge fan of it.
I think that most people don't even know that I do other things. They think that Homer is all that I do.
I think the tone of the show has certainly changed over the years, because it's really, really hard to do something different when you have a show going on as long as this has.
I've made a kind of pact with myself where I said, It doesn't matter what it is as long as I'm acting.
If I were actually Homer Simpson, I'd be getting scripts out the wazoo.
In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics!
It is better to watch things then to do them.
It was written into the script as a frustrated grunt, and I thought of that old Laurel and Hardy character who had a grunt like 'D'owww. Matt liked it, and I kept it, but no one knew it would become a catch phrase.
It's a different way of getting across an emotion. You're trying to get it across to the animator because the animator is inspired by the voicetrack in terms of how to animate the character.
It's hard to find a play that's right for me to do. Rather than waiting around for the right script to come along, I decided to write one myself.
One of my favorite episodes was the one in which Homer grew hair. That was a very unique episode, since there was a gay secretary, but that wasn't even the issue of the show-the issue was Homer's image changing because he had hair.
Sometimes the only way you can feel good about yourself is by making someone else look bad. And I'm tired of making other people feel good about themselves.
The humor is essentially dark for a cartoon and sophisticated. But at the same time, being a cartoon gives the writers more freedom than in a normal sitcom. It always pushes the line that, despite human failings, the Simpsons are really decent people.
The nice thing is that, at least in Los Angeles, I'm known as a character actor and I do auditions for other things besides just cartoon shows.
The Simpsons can go anywhere in the world and not worry about any budgetary issues. However, even when the show has had its run, I think the characters can go on in perpetuity.
The Simpsons take up so little time that I'm able to do other things as well.
The voice doesn't take a lot of effort now, but in the beginning it was hard to try to find a voice. The one I settled on was just easier to do for a half-hour.
The writers found that they could do more stuff with Homer because he's a lot more vulnerable, more neurotic. Homer knows his comforts; he's unambitious, and he really, really loves his family.
There are times when the writers ask us to improvise. Sometimes the animators are inspired by what you do, and sometimes you are inspired by what the animators do.
There's a little bit of Mr. Magoo in there, and there was a particular tone my father had-when he got on his high horse: Son, let me tell you!
To many, Homer may appear lazy and a loser, but he's just much misguided. He's boorish, sure, but well meaning and, I guess, the one thing we have in common is the pursuit of lousy diets.
When I first did The Tracey Ullman Show, there were times when I could offer a solution on stage, and I could understand the writers.
Former member of Chicago Second City
Graduated from the class of 1975 from Oak Park River Forest High School
Practices tai-chi.
At first, for the voice of Homer Simpson, Dan tried to imitate Walter Matthau, but he had trouble with certain emotional registers and intonations with the voice, so he slightly changed the present voice of Homer beginning at the beginning of the second season of "The Simpsons".
Doesn't drink.
His voice characterization of Krusty the Clown on Fox-TV's "The Simpsons" was based on Chicago television legend Bob Bell who portrayed WGN-TV's Bozo from 1960-1984.
"Castellaneta" is the name of a city in Italy
Graduate of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois.
In 2002, his trademark phrase "d'oh" from "The Simpsons" was considered valid, and added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
The phrase "d'oh" appears only as "Annoyed Grunt" in Simpsons scripts.
Homer Simpson, voiced by Castellaneta on "The Simpsons" (1989), was ranked #35 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].
Played Danny DeVito's client in The War of the Roses (1989), and his brother on The Simpsons.
Once asked in an interview what "D'oh!" means. He replied that he thought "D'oh!", the trademark line of his "Simpsons" character Homer, was a euphamism for "damn".
According to the producers of The Simpsons, he is so in character when playing Homer Simpson that when he makes a mistake during a line reading it is the type of mistake Homer would make. For example, in the episode "Homer Goes To College," Homer chants "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T!" His saying S-M-R-T was not scripted, improvised or even intended to be a joke, it was just a mistake.
Has two younger sisters named Paula and Gina and two nephews named Calvin and Cary
Popular stand up comedian and voice over actor of numerous cartoons and advertisements.
Took over the voice of the Genie from Robin Williams for the "Aladdin" TV show and subsequent movies. However, when Williams made peace with Disney, he took the role back from Castellaneta.
Good friends with Tracey Ullman. They did a lot of comedy work together, and it was Ullman that got Dan his most famous role as Homer Simpson.
Graduated from the same university as Joan Allen, Justin Mentell, and Matt Ricci.
Did some work at a Montreal, Canada radio station in 2004.
Explained in 2005 on Bravo channel, that his Homer Simpson voice was also partly based on his father's as well as the late Walter Matthau.
According to "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening, Dan is the one person he will not sit in with when Dan records voices, because Matt says that he finds Dan so funny when he records voices that he cannot stop himself from laughing, effectively ruining several takes.
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