Bob Saget

Robert Lane Saget (/ˈsæɡət/; May 17, 1956 – January 9, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and television host. His acting roles included Danny Tanner on the sitcom Full House (1987–1995), its sequel Fuller House (2016–2020), and the voice of narrator Ted Mosby on the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014). From 1989 to 1997, he was the original host of America's Funniest Home Videos. Saget was also known for his adult-oriented stand-up comedy, and his 2014 album That's What I'm Talkin' About was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Saget was born in Philadelphia on May 17, 1956, to a Jewish family. His father, Benjamin (1917–2007), was a supermarket executive, and his mother, Rosalyn "Dolly" (1925–2014), was a hospital administrator. Saget lived in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles before moving back to Philadelphia and graduating from Abington Senior High School in 1975. Saget originally intended to become a doctor, but his Honors English teacher, Elaine Zimmerman, saw his creative potential and urged him to seek a career in films.

Saget attended Temple University's film school, where he created Through Adam's Eyes, a black-and-white film about a boy who received reconstructive facial surgery, and was honored with an award of merit in the Student Academy Awards. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1978. Saget intended to take graduate courses at the University of Southern California but quit after only a few days. Saget described himself at that time in an article by Glenn Esterly in the 1990 Saturday Evening Post: "I was a cocky, overweight twenty-two-year-old. Then I had a gangrenous appendix taken out, almost died, and I got over being cocky or overweight." Saget talked about his burst appendix on Anytime with Bob Kushell and said that it happened on the Fourth of July, at the UCLA Medical Center and that they at first just iced the area for seven hours before taking it out and finding that it had become gangrenous.

1987–2001

Following a short stint as a member of CBS' The Morning Program in early 1987, Saget was cast as Danny Tanner in Full House, which became a success with family viewers, and landed in the Nielsen ratings' Top 30 beginning with season three. In 1989, Saget began as the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, a role he held until 1997. During the early 1990s, Saget worked on both Full House and AFV simultaneously. In 2009, he returned to AFV for the 20th-anniversary one-hour special co-hosted with Tom Bergeron.

Saget directed the 1996 ABC television movie For Hope, which was inspired by the life story of his sister, Gay Saget, who had died from scleroderma three years earlier.

In 1998, he directed his first feature film, Dirty Work, starring Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange. Released one year after he left his long-running role as host of America's Funniest Home Videos, the film received broadly negative reviews from critics and earned low box office returns. However, it has since become a cult favorite, due partially to Artie Lange's later popularity on The Howard Stern Show where the film is sometimes mentioned, often in unflattering terms.

In 1998, Saget made a cameo appearance as a cocaine addict in the stoner comedy Half Baked.

2001–2022

Saget had a sitcom on The WB titled Raising Dad. It co-starred Kat Dennings, Brie Larson, and Jerry Adler and lasted only one season.

He served as the voice of the future Ted Mosby, who narrated the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, which ran for nine seasons from September 19, 2005 to March 2014.

He was host of NBC's game show 1 vs. 100 from 2006 to 2008.

His HBO comedy special, That Ain't Right, came out on DVD on August 28, 2007. It is dedicated to his father, Ben Saget, who died at age 89 on January 30, 2007, due to complications from congestive heart failure.

From 2005 to 2010, Saget had a recurring role in four episodes of the HBO TV series Entourage playing a parody of himself. He would later appear in the 2015 feature film based on the series.

Saget wrote, directed, and starred in Farce of the Penguins, a parody of 2005's March of the Penguins, which was released direct-to-DVD, in January 2007.

Saget appeared in the Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone for a limited four-month engagement. He played "Man in Chair" while Jonathan Crombie, who normally played the character on Broadway, was with the national tour of the musical. On January 4, 2008, Saget's caricature was unveiled at Sardi's Restaurant.

In April 2009, he debuted in a new sitcom along with his co-star Cynthia Stevenson on ABC called Surviving Suburbia. The series, which was originally slated to air on The CW, ended after one abbreviated season.

In 2010, Saget starred in an A&E series Strange Days in which he followed others in different activities and lifestyles, documenting their adventures in unusual ways.

In 2014, his book Dirty Daddy was released, in which he writes about his career, comedy influences, and experiences with life and death. He embarked on a small tour in support of the book, including the Pemberton Music Festival, where he introduced Snoop Dogg prior to performing his own set. In the same year, he toured Australia for the first time, with a stand-up show called Bob Saget Live: The Dirty Daddy Tour. The show was performed in the major cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth.

In 2015 and 2016, he guest-starred in two episodes of Grandfathered, starring and produced by his Full House co-star, John Stamos.

From 2016 to 2020, Saget reprised his role as Danny Tanner for ten episodes of Full House's sequel series, Fuller House, including its series premiere and finale.

In 2019, he was announced as host of ABC's Videos After Dark. Saget also hosted the game show Nashville Squares on CMT.

In 2020, Saget launched a podcast titled Bob Saget's Here For You with Studio71. He also competed in season four of The Masked Singer as "Squiggly Monster".

Saget was a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. His scleroderma efforts benefited such celebrities as Scary Movie star Regina Hall. In an interview with Ability Magazine, Saget discussed how his sister was diagnosed with scleroderma at 43 and died at 47. She had previously been misdiagnosed numerous times.

On January 9, 2022, Saget, who was staying at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes in unincorporated Orange County, Florida, near Orlando, was found unresponsive in his room by the hotel staff around 4 p.m. EST. Emergency responders were called, who pronounced him dead at the scene. He was 65. No cause of death was immediately available, but police have said that no foul play or drug use was detected. Saget was in the midst of a stand-up tour, and had performed in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, the previous evening.

After news of his death broke, several of Saget's Full House costars released statements about his death. John Stamos said that he was "broken" and "gutted". Candace Cameron Bure called him "one of the best human beings". Dave Coulier said his heart is broken and referred to Saget as his "forever brother". Andrea Barber said "He had the biggest heart of anyone in Hollywood".

Film

Television