John Dezso Ratzenberger is an American actor, voice actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and entrepreneur, who is best known for his role as Cliff Clavin in the NBC sitcom Cheers. He reprised this role for Mickey's 60th Birthday and Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration. He has also done voice work in every Pixar film to date until Onward, (though he has an uncredited appearance as a subway passenger in Soul) but will continue to do so as of 2024 starting with reprising his role as Fritz from Inside Out 2, with at least one live-action performance in a Disney television film.
Background[]
Ratzenberger was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Bertha Veronica (née Grochowski), and Dezso Alexander Ratzenberger, a WWII veteran who had been a combat engineer in the Philippines. His father was of Austrian and Hungarian descent, and his mother was of Polish ancestry. Ratzenberger attended St. Ann's School in Bridgeport and then Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. In 1969, Ratzenberger worked at the Woodstock Festival as a heavy equipment operator and as part of the crew building the stage. John moved to London in 1971, where he began his acting, writing, and directing career.
Filmography[]
Films[]
- Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - Major Bren Derlin
- Mickey's 60th Birthday (1988) - Cliff Clavin
- Toy Story (1995) - Hamm
- That Darn Cat (1997) - Dusty
- A Bug's Life (1998) - P.T. Flea
- Toy Story 2 (1999) - reprises his role of Hamm
- Monsters, Inc. (2001) - Yeti
- Spirited Away (2001) - Assistant Manager (English dub)
- Finding Nemo (2003) - Moonfish school ("Charade fish")
- The Incredibles (2004) - The Underminer
- Cars (2006) - Mack
- Ratatouille (2007) - Mustafa
- WALL-E (2008) - John
- Up (2009) - Construction Foreman Tom
- Toy Story 3 (2010) - reprises his role of Hamm
- Cars 2 (2011) - reprises his role of Mack
- Brave (2012) - Gordon
- Monsters University (2013) - reprises his role of Yeti
- Planes (2013) - Harland
- Super Buddies (2013) - Gramps Livingstone
- Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014) - Brody Enid
- Inside Out (2015) - Fritz
- The Good Dinosaur (2015) - Earl
- Finding Dory (2016) - Bill (Husband Crab)
- Cars 3 (2017) - reprises his role of Mack
- Coco (2017) - Juan Ortodoncia
- Incredibles 2 (2018) - reprises his role of The Underminer
- Toy Story 4 (2019) - reprises his role of Hamm
- Onward (2020) - Fennwick
- Soul (2020) - Guy on Subway (uncredited)
- Inside Out 2 (2024) - reprises his role of Fritz
Television[]
- Mickey's 60th Birthday (1988) - Cliff Clavin
- Disneyland's 30th Anniversary Celebration (1990) - Cliff Clavin
- Blossom (episode "Sitcom") (1993) - Himself
- Toy Story Treats (1996) - Hamm
- 8 Simple Rules (2002–2005) - Fred Doyle
- Pixar Animation Studios: Celebrating 20 Years (2006) - Officer Ratz, Hamm, Mack, Himself, P.T. Flea, Yeti, Moonfish, The Underminer
- Toy Story Toons (2011–2012) - Hamm
- LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures (2017) - Major Bren Derlin
- Fancy Nancy (2019) - Poppy
- Forky Asks a Question (2019) - Hamm
- Just Roll With It (2020) - George Bennett
- Monsters at Work (2021) - Yeti, Bernard Tuskmon
Video games[]
- Toy Story: Animated StoryBook (1996) - Hamm
- Toy Story 2: The Video Game (1999) - Hamm
- Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (2003) - Hamm
- The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer (2005) - The Underminer
- Cars: The Video Game (2006) - Mack
- Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures - Mack
- Cars Race-O-Rama (2009) - Mack
- Toy Story 3: The Video Game (2010) - Hamm
- Kinect Rush: A Disney Pixar Adventure (2012) - Hamm
- Disney Infinity (2013) - Hamm
- Kingdom Hearts III (2019) - Hamm
Roles[]
.png "Hamm (render).png (320 KB)")
Dusty
(That Darn Cat)
(That Darn Cat)
.png "Yeti (Monsters Inc).png (437 KB)")
Assistant Manager
(Spirited Away; Disney dub)
(Spirited Away; Disney dub)
Harland
(Planes)
(Planes)
Gramps Livingstone
(Super Buddies)
(Super Buddies)
Brody Enid
(Planes: Fire & Rescue)
(Planes: Fire & Rescue)
.png "John Ratzenberger (Soul).png (596 KB)")
Himself; look-alike cameo
(Soul)
(Soul)
Guy on Subway; uncredited
(Soul)
(Soul)
Sid Clancy
(Fancy Nancy)
(Fancy Nancy)
Gallery[]
Ratzenberger behind the scenes of Toy Story.
Ratzenberger behind the scenes of A Bug's Life.
Ratzenberger behind the scenes of Monsters, Inc..
Ratzenberger at the premiere of Toy Story 3 in June 2010.
Ratzenberger at the premiere of Planes in August 2013.
Ratzenberger at the premiere of Coco in November 2017.
Ratzenberger signing autographs at the premiere of Toy Story 4 in June 2019.
Ratzenberger at the premiere of Onward in February 2020.
Trivia[]
- The running gag of Ratzenberger voicing at least one character in every Pixar movie is referenced during the end credits of Cars; when Mack watches the Cars-parodies of previous Pixar films, he thinks that whoever did the voices of Hamm, Yeti, and P.T. Flea (all in car form) were great actors, until he realized it was the same voice actor in all those films and asks, "What kind of a cut-rate production is this?"
- P.T. Flea from A Bug's Life is Ratzenberger's personal favorite character of his Pixar roles.
- When Toy Story 3 was initially being made by Circle 7 Animation, Ratzenberger refused to voice Hamm unless Pixar produced the film.
- While Soul is the first Pixar movie in which Ratzenberger doesn't have a voice role, his likeness does appear in the film. He also does not have a voice role in Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear, and Elemental, though this may be because he and Pixar likely decided to retire that tradition. However, he returned to voice Fritz in Inside Out 2, and is likely to reprise his role as Hamm for Toy Story 5.
- Outside of Disney, Ratzenberger is also known for voicing Rigger (Hoggish Greedly's sidekick) in Captain Planet and the Planeteers and portraying Mick Vaughn in the 2015 Fox comedy film Russell Madness.
External links[]
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