Jack Burns and Carlin were a comedy team from 1960-1962. When they parted ways in 1962, Burns joined the Second City comedy group in Chicago, and Carlin pursued a solo stand-up comedy career.
According to George Carlin's posthumously released autobiography "Last Words", he was planning to release a comedy concert movie called 'The Illustrated George Carlin' in the late 1970s, around the same time as Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979). He had part of his second comedy concert, On Location: George Carlin at Phoenix (1978) (TV), recorded on film and had planned animated segments and live-action reenactments of his bits (these animated segments would later wind up in his 1984 HBO concert George Carlin: Carlin on Campus (1984) (TV). The project went as far as pre-production and casting for the live-action segments, but was abandoned when Carlin ran out of money. He said he didn't regret it since the material wasn't up to his usual best and said it was part of his "micro-world" of stand-up.
According to George in his A&E Biography profile, when he was young and would ask his mother what the meaning of a word was, she would invariably answer "Go look it up in the dictionary". He says his fascination with words, their meanings, and word play, is where is comedy routine comes from: The dissection of "words". Even his infamous "Seven Dirty Words" routine is about the meanings of these "bad" words.
Although his mother almost had an abortion when she was pregnant with him, he has spoken out in favor of abortion rights and even convinced his wife, Brenda, to have one when she became pregnant again in the late '60s, right in the middle of his financial troubles stemming from his outspokenness and lack of clubs willing to book him for it.
Appeared in "The Simpsons" (1989) episode "D'oh-in' in the Wind," playing a former hippie. In a previous episode of the show, Krusty the Clown is told he's being sued by Carlin for stealing the "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television."
Attended (but was expelled from) Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, New York--the same alma mater as Regis Philbin and Martin Scorsese.
Awarded the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 91-93. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Business partner and best friend of Jerry Hamza.
Chosen as #2 in Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time (April 2004).
Close friends with Joe Pesci and said he "prayed to him instead of God".
Daughter, Kelly Carlin-McCall, was born in 1963.
Died two days before the 10th anniversary of his marriage to Sally Wade.
Father-in-law of Bob McCall.
Friend of Richard Belzer.
Has many popular writings on the Internet being falsely attributed to him, such as the anonymous commentaries "I Am a Bad American" and "The Paradox of Our Time," along with several lists of one-liner jokes. Carlin states on his website that he did not write them, and "nothing you see on the Internet is mine unless it came from one of my albums, books, HBO shows, or appeared on my website.
Has received two Grammys: for his albums "FM & AM" (1972) and "Jammin' in New York" (1993).
He and his older brother Patrick were raised by a single mother in New York City. Their mother, Mary, died in 1984 at age 89.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 1555 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.
He was the first-ever host of "Saturday Night Live" (1975) on 10/11/75, as well as the first-ever host of "Fridays" (1980), an ABC show fashioned after "SNL".