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‘Simpsons’ Voice Actor Prevails in Legal Battle Over One of His Characters

Feb 25, 2014  •  Post A Comment

One of the principal voice actors on the long-running Fox animated show "The Simpsons" has prevailed in a lawsuit against another actor over a character on the show.

TheWrap.com reports that Hank Azaria, who plays Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum and numerous other characters on “The Simpsons,” won a court victory in a suit he brought against “Leap Year” actor Craig Bierko over Azaria’s character sportscaster Jim Brockmire.

Brockmire was featured in a 2010 Funny or Die show called “Gamechangers.” In 2011, Bierko’s lawyer sent a cease and desist letter to Azaria over the character, claiming that Bierko had created him.

"Azaria filed suit in 2012, asserting that Bierko had falsely claimed ownership of the character, jeopardizing a potential movie deal," the story reports.

The judge granted Azaria’s motion for summary judgment last week, finding that Brockmire is copyrighted material owned by Azaria and How To Pictures, the report adds.

The article notes that the judge found that Brockmire “has characteristics such as being ‘a middle-aged white man’ who ‘wears plaid, a rose at his lapel, owns a lucky pen, has ‘old school’ values, has a penchant for movies, especially ‘The Godfather,’ loves his wife to death, jovially interacts with his public, has a depth of obscure cultural knowledge, loses his temper uncontrollably, and works as a baseball announcer.’”

Bierko’s character, who is called “Sports Announcer Character” in the judge’s order, has characteristics that don’t serve to distinguish him from “any actual baseball announcer sitting in the booth on given game day,” the judge wrote, according to the story.

hank azaria.pngHank Azaria

One Comment

  1. Good for you Henry, I think people will try to pull a stunt like that out of ego and you cannot just do nothing. I know you from way back when you used to come in to my family’s resteraunt & bar called the Itchey Foot Ristorante in LA many years ago. I remember you were a nice quiet polite bottled beer sipping patron sitting at my bar 🙂 my friends and co worker Duffy McIntyre and her future ex husband Larry Tomashoff introduced us and you as their improv buddy and Thin Ice partner. Who woulda thought then how far you would go? I’ve followed your career for years and I think you are a genius when it comes to creating characters. Over the years I sometimes feel maybe I was one of your Moe character insperations cause at the time I was the slick hair combing actor stuck behind a bar always wanting to be on the other side. A point of interest is that “The Itchey Foot” used to be called ” Itchey Foot Moe’s ” ten years or so before the original club / bar located over by Cal State LA closed and decided to add a resteraunt to the mix, modified the name dropping the Moe’s cause it wouldnt fit on the sign. LOL The Itchey Foote’ became and was a popular fine Italian dining establishment lasting over 25 years at 801 west temple near the music center. We catered to the Taper crowd and the Banks and Stock Exchange crouds and were pretty busy hit spot of the 70’s 80’s into the 90’s too. I am so glad to have worked there and to have met and waited on another Moe!!!
    B’ Martinez Birney actor and looping artist

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