Bobcat Goldthwait, widely recognized by the shorter moniker Bobcat, numbered among the many stand-up performers who surfaced in the 1980s and cultivated followings through exaggerated stage identities comparable to those of Howie Mandel and Sam Kinison. Until his later years he almost never stepped outside that persona, an audacious clown whose voice carried an abrasive edge. Audiences chiefly recall his first major screen turn, playing a version of himself in Police Academy 2 and its sequels, together with stand-up specials such as the 1987 program Bobcat Goldthwait: Is He Always Like That? Offbeat features including One Crazy Summer and the cult favorite Tape Heads also featured him.
Goldthwait reached his greatest visibility during the nightclub-comedy boom, yet his mainstream appeal declined in the mid-1990s once a quieter style represented by Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen Degeneres gained favor. He had by then built a steady core audience, documented by the 1992 concert recording Meat Bob Live and appearances on multiple Comic Relief releases.
Throughout the next decade he continued taking small roles in numerous Hollywood B-movies while logging frequent guest spots on 1990s network series such as Married...With Children and Hollywood Squares; he also hosted the FX quiz program Bobcat's Big Ass Show.
He first performed in comedy clubs at fifteen, still a high-school student. Four years later he made his initial television appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. Another late-night moment that drew lasting attention came on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, when an Andy Kaufman-style stunt of setting a chair ablaze resulted in arson charges.
Beyond conventional routines, he has executed nearly every conceivable stage antic, among them shaving his already-thinning scalp, and he has long been associated with a mullet haircut. A persistent streak of nonconformity runs through his material. In addition to performing, he wrote and directed the underground film Shakes the Clown and directed the Aquabats video for “Super Rad.” His singular voice has likewise supplied narration and character work in children’s animation, notably the role of Pain in Disney’s Hercules.
Goldthwait is the father of actress daughter Tasha and stepson Tyler. He has married twice and is presently wed to actress Nikki Cox, sixteen years his junior.
