Beloved Comedian’s Biographer Reveals the One Role He Refused—and Why It Was a ‘Genius’ Move originally appeared on Parade.
Rodney Dangerfield may have earned respect from audiences, but his film choices didn’t always get the same treatment.
On the latest episode of Nostalgia Tonight with Joe Sibilia, entertainment journalist Michael Seth Starr — author of the newly released biography Nothin’ Comes Easy: The Life of Rodney Dangerfield— offered a candid look at the late comedian’s uneven Hollywood run.
While Caddyshack earned Dangerfield cult status in 1980 thanks to his iconic turn as the wisecracking Al Czervik, it was 1986’s Back to School that proved to be his biggest box office success.
“In looking back at Rodney’s movie career, his most successful movie financially was Back to School,” Starr said. “A lot of people might think it was Caddyshack, but Back to School made the most money.”
Starr also didn’t mince words about Dangerfield’s missteps.
“Although I think one of Rodney’s, quote-unquote, downfalls, as far as movies were concerned, is that his decisions on what to star in got kind of worse and worse the older he got,” he noted. “I think one of the genius moves he did make was not appearing in Caddyshack II, which is considered one of the worst sequels in Hollywood history.”
When asked to name Dangerfield’s biggest career mistake, Starr was direct.
“I think I would have to go with his choice of movie roles towards the end of his life. Like I mentioned, he was making good money, and that was always upmost in his mind as a child of the Depression. But it didn’t really keep him in the public eye very much, because some of these movies were going straight to video or straight to DVD… he was resting on his laurels from Caddyshack and then Back to School.”
It wasn’t all misfires and missed chances, though. Starr also shared tender insight into Dangerfield’s second marriage to Joan Child. The couple married in 1993 and remained together until his death in 2004 at the age of 82.
“She did own a flower shop in Santa Monica, and she was just good for him,” he explained. “She supported him. She nursed him when he got ill… He always called her ‘the love of his life,’ and I believe that.”
Added Starr: “It wasn’t like she was a gold digger or anything. She was good for him, and made the last 25 years of his life much more livable and hospitable, I think, in his own mind.”
Nothin’ Comes Easy: The Life of Rodney Dangerfield is out now.
Beloved Comedian’s Biographer Reveals the One Role He Refused—and Why It Was a ‘Genius’ Move first appeared on Parade on Jun 23, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
