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The late Andy Kaufman, best known in professional wrestling circles for his memorable feud with Jerry Lawler in Memphis Wrestling in the 1980s, will be posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2020. The announcement was quietly made in October when the class of 2020 was announced. There is no official date for the unveiling of Kaufman's star as of this writing. He wll be honored for his work in Television, where he was a memorable part of the early days of Saturday Night Live as well as a cast member of iconic sitcom Taxi for its entire run.
A comedian who loved to manipulate reality in order to elicit a reaction, Kaufman was a lifelong fan of professional wrestling and championed it as true stagecraft and performance. He was a regular at WWWF events at Madison Square Garden and through his relationship with writer Bill Apter, was connected to Jerry Lawler, leading to Kaufman's heel run in Memphis, as documented in the film I'm From Hollywood.
Kaufman has been the subject of a number of films, including Milos Forman's Man on the Moon, which saw Lawler recreate the feud with actor Jim Carrey playing Kaufman. In 2018, The Netflix documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring A Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention Of Tony Clifton (which also features Lawler) documents Carrey losing himself in the persona of Andy Kaufman while filming Man On the Moon.
Kaufman passed away of kidney failure due to large cell carcinoma in May 1984 in Los Angeles, California, although some still argue this is his longest running bit to date and that he's still out there. In the wake of his passing, his writing partner Bob Zmuda founded the American incarnation of Comic Relief, an annual event that raises money to help the homeless in the United States. Kaufman has remained beloved in wrestling circles and even had an official WWE action figure released by Jakks Pacific when they held the official WWE toy license.
As noted, there is no official date set for the unveiling of Kaufman's star, but in NYC, The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens will hold a rare screening of cult film My Breakfast with Blassie, starring Kaufman and WWE Hall of Famer Freddie Blassie as they have a discussion over breakfast on Saturday 12/14 at 5PM EST.
The film will be part of a program dedicated to Andy Kaufman, a New York native, titled I Trusted You: Andy Kaufman on the Edge of Performance.
Official details on the program:
Andy Kaufman (1949–1984) claimed never to have told a joke. A performer working in the field of popular entertainment (on Taxi, Saturday Night Live, and more), he confounded audience expectations and challenged the traditional role of the comic. "I Trusted You: Andy Kaufman on the Edge of Performance" features famous and rarely seen clips of Kaufman’s comedy, his interventions on live television, the cult classic film My Breakfast with Blassie (1983), and will include members of Kaufman's immediate family speaking about his work from a personal perspective. This happening will also present live performances conceived by Andy Kaufman that few have ever seen. They will arise within public gallery spaces as well as in the Redstone Theater; true to Kaufman's spirit, the lines between intended and unintended, spontaneous and planned, will not always be clear.
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