Early Life
Willard's birth year has been erroneously reported as 1933. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His father, also named Fred Willard, worked at the financial department of a bank. His father died in 1951. Willard is a former U.S. soldier, having graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute. He also graduated college from the Virginia Military Institute. After his tour in the Army, Willard auditioned alongside Robert Klein for The Second City, which consisted of a nightclub manager and his employee. The audition helped the two secure the job. He is an alumnus of The Second City. He starred off Broadway Jules Pfeiffer's "Little Murders", directed by Alan Arkin. He was a founding member of the improvisational comedy group Ace Trucking Company. Fellow members of Ace included Bill Saluga and Patti Deutsch, among others. They appeared regularly on This is Tom Jones.
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Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)