Bill Hader To Play Famous JFK Impersonator

Joseph Gibson — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:46:57 +0000

You might have read a little about Vaughn Meader, a comedian who achieved overnight fame in the early 60s by doing a pitch-perfect impersonation of then-president John F. Kennedy in comedy albums like The First Family. Unfortunately for Meader, JFK‘s presidency didn’t end under the most comedic of circumstances, and his career quickly died. Now, he’s going to have a movie about him, starring Bill Hader (currently in Paul) and written by Robert Siegel, whose specialty is dark slightly funny dramas like The Wrestler and Big Fan. The operative word there being “dark,” since it’s not your typical comedy that deals with the President of the United States being assassinated – especially not one as handsome as JFK. Here’s Hader on the project:

“Yeah, I would like to do… dark. It would be pretty sweet. It’s a real interesting piece and in a weird way it feeds into now, just like people becoming super famous overnight, reality stars and stuff. This guy became crazy famous, the president was talking about this guy and then it all went away. It’s really interesting.”

I for one am really excited about this – I’ve been interested in Vaughn Meader ever since I read the famous Lenny Bruce anecdote about him (look it up), and I think Hader and Siegel will make perfect collaborators for this project. (via The Playlist)

Screen Junkies » Robert Siegel

Bill Hader To Play Famous JFK Impersonator