I'm a really big fan of Bill Murray.
— Phil Hartman
I think there's a notion in our society, and it may be valid, that people aren't as funny when they get older. It's a stigma still attached to the rebelliousness of youth.
I think my most famous was 'Poco's Legend.' It's a white album with a simple line drawing of a horse. It almost has a Picasso feel to it. I remember that Rusty Young, the lead singer of the band, said, 'I want you to draw a horse for the song 'Legend,' which is about a phantom spirit horse. I want you to do it in several lines.'
I found the writing arena to be much less competitive.
One of the remarkable things about my career is that it has been marked by steady, incremental progress. No sudden spikes up, and no sudden downfalls, either.
It's fun coming in as the second or third lead. If the movie or TV show bombs, you aren't to blame.
'Blasto' is a new game for Sony Playstation. It's an awesome three-dimensional game, and I play the character Blasto who's sort of a Flash Gordon barrel-chested superhero who goes to Uranus and shoots these little green alien Fascist guys. He rescues babes; he goes on wild rides.
The one thing I could do was voices and impersonations and weird characters, and there was really no call for that, except on Saturday Night Live.
I was 36, and I had decided to quit acting because it was so disappointing.
I could do John Wayne, Jack Benny, Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and entertain my friends. But I never seriously considered it as a career choice.
I benefit from the Mr. Potato Head syndrome. Put a wig and a nose and glasses on me, and I disappear.
My brothers and sisters and I spoke in a language called Egg Latin. In the early '50s in Canada, this became a fad way of talking among certain people. It's based on the concept that in every syllable before the vowel and after the preceding constant you insert the word 'egg.' So, my name Phil would be 'Pegghil.'
As an actor, I felt I couldn't compete. I wasn't as cute as the leading man; I wasn't as brilliant as Robin Williams.
I've succeeded beyond my wildest dreams - financially and the amount of fun I have in my life.
Even at Westchester High in West LA, I was class clown.
