Andy Kaufman acted.
Andrew G. Kaufman ( January 17 , 1949 -- May 16 , 1984 ) was an American entertainer , actor , writer , performance artist and professional wrestler . After working in small comedy clubs in the early 1970s , Kaufman first came to the attention of a wider audience in 1975 , when he was invited to perform portions of his act on the first season of Saturday Night Live . He was also a frequent guest on sketch comedy and late-night talk shows , particularly Late Night with David Letterman . Sketch comedy comprises a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes , called `` sketches '' , commonly between one and ten minutes long . Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians , either on stage or through an audio or visual medium such as radio and television .