Trivia

Scored a zero on the psychological portion of his Army entrance test, thereby classifying him as ineligible for military service.

He once joked about faking his own death and returning 20 years later. In 2004, several of his friends threw a "Welcome back Andy" party. He didn't show up.

He was the original creator of the format television show Andy's Funhouse (1979) which has later re-vamped by Paul Reubens (aka Pee-wee Herman) into Pee-wee's Playhouse (1986). Reubens got permission from Kaufman himself right before his death.

According to wrestler Jerry Lawler, when they cleaned out Andy's house after his death, many uncashed checks from Mid-South Wrestling promoter Jerry Jarrett were found. These were given as payment for his stint as a wrestler, and made many conclude that he didn't wrestle for the money, but rather for the love of it.

During the height of his Taxi (1978) fame, he worked part-time at "The world-famous Jerry's Deli" on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles as a busboy just to stay grounded.

His Tony Clifton character was supposed to appear on the Christmas episode of Taxi (1978) as Louie De Palma's brother, but "Tony" repeatedly pushed everyone's buttons and slowed down production until he was replaced (much to Andy's delight).

Kaufman was renowned for bizarre stunts that were part of his stage performances, such as the time he took his entire Carnegie Hall audience out for milk and cookies, via 35 waiting buses.

Kaufman and Jerry Lawler's famous feud was all later confirmed by Lawler to be a setup and not real as many believed.

Taxi (1978) co-star Jeff Conaway decked him after the 1979 Golden Globe Awards, when he insulted his co-stars.

Of all Elvis Presley impersonators, he was the REAL Elvis' favorite.

Shared the same birthday with Jim Carrey, who plays him in the film Man on the Moon (1999).

The rock band R.E.M. wrote a song about him for their album "Automatic for the People" (1992) called "Man on the Moon".

Although he died of lung cancer at age 35, he led a very healthy lifestyle and was in good health up to less than one year before his death in May 1984. He didn't drink regularly and was a vegetarian. Although he had smoked when he was younger, he hadn't done so in years; even when doing his Tony Clifton character, he never inhaled the smoke. Kaufman speculated that he may have developed lung cancer through second-hand smoke while performing in nightclubs and concert halls throughout his career when in-door public smoking was still legal during that time.

Diagnosed with a rare, large-cell, carcinoma lung cancer on December 11, 1983.

Daughter, Maria Colonna, was born when Andy was 20, and his girlfriend was 17.

On the DVD "Best of R.E.M., The" (2003), Kaufman appears on the videos "The Great Beyond" (originally released in 1999), and "Man on the Moon" (originally released in 1992).

Many people doubted Kaufman's death, thinking it was just another gag.

Maria was put up for adoption, but later reunited with Kaufman's family, after tracing her biological parents in 1992.

One of his most famous performances was on the 1975 summer replacement show Van Dyke and Company (1976), hosted by Dick Van Dyke. As his "Foreign Man", he did two very poor celebrity impressions, and then broke into a dead solid perfect impression of Elvis Presley. After the audience gave him thunderous applause, he replied, in his "Foreign Man" voice, "Thenk yew veddy much!" The audience went into hysterics.

He once skipped a photo shoot for TV Guide with the Taxi (1978) cast to see a The Three Stooges midnight showing with good friend Eva-Marie Fredric.

Had one granddaughter, Brittany Colonna, who played his younger sister as a child in Man on the Moon (1999).

According to Jim Carrey as stated in A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman (1995), Kaufman created and originally played the "Tony Clifton" character. The secret kept for 15 years (according to Carrey) was that he did so only briefly and the character was soon passed off to Bob Zmuda (Kaufman's writer). Most of the television appearances of Tony Clifton are actually Zmuda, not Kaufman.

The only time in his career when he broke character was during a 1982 television interview with the immortal Orson Welles.

To play up the feud between himself and wrestler Jerry Lawler, Kaufman did several public service announcements in which he proceeded to teach Southern people how to bathe, brush their teeth, and so on.

Despite their publicized, but fake, feud, Kaufman was actually a great admirer of Jerry Lawler.

Saturday Night Live (1975) viewers voted him off the show forever in a call-in poll in 1982.

Often read from the novel "The Great Gatsby" at performances. But, unlike the movie, never made it further than the second page of the first chapter.

Was once a contestant on the game show The Dating Game (1965).

He never referred to himself as a comedian, and he also disliked to be called one. He usually referred to himself as a "song-and-dance man".

Despite having his neck broken by Jerry Lawler's Piledriver, he still won the match they had (the Piledriver was illegal where they were wrestling, so Lawler had gotten disqualified, giving Kaufman the win).

The video "The Great Beyond", which originally featured clips of Jim Carrey performing as Kaufman in the movie Man on the Moon (1999), was modified on the DVD "Best of R.E.M., The" (2003) by clips of the original Andy Kaufman.

Museum of TV and Radio presented 90-minute film of Kaufman highlights to honor him posthumously in New York and Los Angeles. (October 1999)

Robin Williams once called him "a comedian's comedian".

Lip-synched the "Mighty Mouse" theme on the first episode of Saturday Night Live (1975).

Was working on a novel loosely based on his life that weaves in and out of reality titled "The Huey Williams Story", but had to stop because of his illness.

Along with his writing partner Bob Zmuda, he wrote "The Tony Clifton Story", a full-length feature film about the adventures of his alter-ego Tony Clifton. However, after his movie Heartbeeps (1981) tanked at the box office, it was scrapped by the studios.

He was such a hardcore Elvis Presley fan that he drove into a town that had an Elvis movie playing, with a television set, so that he could plug it in somewhere to see the movie on television.

Wrestled Playboy playmate Susan Smith in a match for the intergender championship of the world" belt. Although Smith clearly bested Kaufman in this fierce bout, he was nonetheless declared the winner. There was a pictorial of this match in the February 1982 issue of "Playboy".

He had an excellent memory and always showed up to the set of Taxi (1978) knowing not just his own lines, but also everyone else's.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on August 24, 2023. Kevin Nealon, Kristen Schaal and Michael Kaufman were guest speakers at the ceremony. His Walk of Fame star is located near the Ricardo Montalban Theatre.

Unaware of the fact that Tony Clifton was just a character, promoters would often book him instead of Kaufman, as he was cheaper. But instead of Kaufman, his brother Michael or Bob Zmuda would appear as the character. During Clifton's act, Kaufman often made unannounced appearances on the stage.

Before Andy Kaufman, there was no real way to describe what he did. Now it has been coined as "performance art" and many people imitate his style of "entertainment".

Was piledriven twice by Jerry Lawler

He regularly practiced Transcendental Meditation.

At one point while filming Taxi (1978), he was delaying rehearsals because he was meditating. His co-star Tony Danza lost his patience, pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed him with foam just to get some kind of reaction. Andy just calmly stared at him as he did it.

Andy's Army, a group of friends and family of Andy Kaufman, helped induct him into the 2014 WWE Hall of Fame by using #AK4WWEHOF2014 in various forums, pod-casts, blogs and tweets to WWE. It was a surprise for everyone when a Tony Clifton Flashmob suddenly showed up and wrestled Jerry Lawler, Royal Rumble-style.

In 1980, Andy wrestled stunt woman Marian Green in a playful mud wrestling bout at Chippendales in Los Angeles.

When trying to bring his wrestling women act into the world of mainstream pro wrestling, Kaufman wanted to wrestle at Madison Square Garden for the World Wrestling Federation, but his good friend Bill Apter, a head editor for several wrestling magazines, told him that Vincent McMahon would never go for such a thing, so they tried to talk to Apter's friend Jerry Lawler, which led to Andy's infamous feud with Lawler from 1982-83.

Was the world's very first inter-gender wrestling champ. Had a perfect undefeated track record and took home the belt.

Was the subject of the song "Andy Kaufman" by the punk band The Bunkers. (1995)