Johnny Kassir (born October 24, 1957) is an
American actor,
voice actor, and
comedian who is perhaps best known for voicing the
Crypt Keeper on the hit
HBO show
Tales from the Crypt.
[John Kassir + More join the TRINITY OF TERRORS!]
Biography
Career
Kassir played the Bulgarian kicker,
Zagreb Shkenusky, for 7 years in the
HBO comedy series
1st & Ten, about a fictional football team. His other live action credits include sketch-acting on
The Amanda Show and a portrayal of
Shemp Howard in a biopic about
The Three Stooges, produced by
Mel Gibson, and Ralph in
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical. He was also able to get his own
Pee-wee Herman style show in
1997 called
Johnnytime, which aired for two seasons on the USA network. He also appeared as
The Atom in the
Justice League of America pilot episode, which, despite not being picked up, was released as a film in some markets. John has appeared in over a dozen feature films, starred in eight TV pilots (six of which went to series and two of which lasted on air for over six years each) and guest starred in dozens of TV series in both comic and dramatic roles.
[memoryalpha] Kassir beat out both
Michael Winslow and
Charles Fleischer to become the voice of the Crypt Keeper.
As a standup comic, he has opened for the likes of
Lou Rawls,
Tom Jones,
The Temptations and
Four Tops on their
TNT tour,
Bobby Vinton,
Richard Belzer, and
Harry Blackstone, Jr. among others. John has also appeared on stage performing improvisation with
Robin Williams, though Williams did not realize this was happening.