Steve Guttenberg

Steven Robert Guttenberg (born August 24, 1958) is an American actor, author, businessman, producer, and director.

Guttenberg was born on August 24, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York, the only son, along with his two sisters, of Ann Iris (née Newman), a surgical assistant, and Jerome Stanley Guttenberg, an electrical engineer.

His godfather is actor Michael Bell.

He had a Jewish upbringing in the Flushing neighborhood of the borough of Queens.

In 1976, he graduated from Plainedge High School after his family moved from Queens to North Massapequa.

While still in high school, Guttenberg attended a summer program at the Juilliard School and studied under John Houseman.

During that time period, he auditioned for and won a part in an off-Broadway production of The Lion in Winter.

After high school, Guttenberg attended the University at Albany, SUNY for a year.

When he left SUNY, he moved to California to pursue an acting career.

As he recounts, within weeks he was cast in a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial playing opposite Colonel Sanders.

After playing an uncredited bit part in the suspense film Rollercoaster, Guttenberg had his first screen credit in the TV movie Something for Joey (1977).

He then played the starring role in the 1977 California high-school comedy The Chicken Chronicles, set in Beverly Hills in 1969.

He also appeared in the 1978 film The Boys From Brazil, based on the Ira Levin bestseller, and guest-starred on Family.

Guttenberg starred in the short-lived TV series Billy (1979), based on Billy Liar.

He had a supporting role in the tennis romance film Players (1979).

His lead roles in Hollywood films of the 1980s and 1990s include Cocoon, Police Academy, Three Men and a Baby, Diner, The Bedroom Window, Three Men and a Little Lady, The Big Green, and Short Circuit.

In 1980, a Coca-Cola commercial featured him trying to help a non-English-speaking woman with a flat bicycle tire.

Guttenberg starred in the TV movie To Race the Wind (1980) playing blind lawyer Harold Krents.

The same year, he starred in the Nancy Walker-directed Can't Stop the Music, a semiautobiographical movie about the disco group Village People.

Guttenberg played Jim Craig in the TV movie Miracle on Ice (1981).

He appeared in Barry Levinson's Diner (1982), then starred in another short-lived TV series No Soap, Radio (1982).

He starred in the action-comedy The Man Who Wasn't There (1983) and had a supporting part in the post-apocalyptic television movie The Day After (1983).

Guttenberg starred in The Ferret (1984) a pilot for a TV series that was not picked up.

In 1984, Guttenberg played the lead role in Police Academy.

It grossed $8.5 million in its opening weekend and over $149 million worldwide, against a budget of $4.5 million, and of the film franchise it launched, it is the most successful.

He then became a busy star over the next four years, appearing in nine starring roles, tying with Gene Hackman for busiest actor.

In 1985, Police Academy was quickly followed by a sequel, Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.

Guttenberg then had the romantic male lead in Cocoon, another box-office success.

A comedy in which he starred, Bad Medicine, was not particularly successful.

In 1986, Guttenberg played Pecos Bill in an episode of Tall Tales & Legends, then was in Police Academy 3: Back in Training.

In 1986, Guttenberg starred in Short Circuit opposite Ally Sheedy, another very popular film.

In 1987, he changed pace with the thriller The Bedroom Window, directed by Curtis Hanson, then made Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, his last Police Academy Film.

Guttenberg had a cameo in Amazon Women on the Moon and supported Michael Caine and Sally Field in Surrender.

Guttenberg had the biggest financial success of his career to date with Three Men and a Baby with Tom Selleck and Ted Danson.

In 1988, he starred with Peter O'Toole and Daryl Hannah in High Spirits, which flopped.

In 1989, he appeared in the Michael Jackson music video "Liberian Girl".

He also acted in Cocoon: The Return which was a commercial disappointment.

In 1990, he replaced Timothy Hutton in the lead role of Prelude to a Kiss at the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway.

He also performed in London's West End, where he starred in The Boys Next Door.

He appeared in the world stage premiere production of Furthest From the Sun, which Woody Harrelson directed and co-authored.