GGACP Rewind: Episode #33: James Karen

Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast

Comedy, Arts, Tv & Film, Visual Arts

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Veteran character actor James Karen appeared in over 80 movies, more than 100 television shows and a staggering 5,000 TV commercials. In a career spanning nearly 7 decades (!), he’s worked with Frederic March, Lauren Bacall, Gene Hackman, Steven Spielberg, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford and Will Smith, to name a few. Gilbert and Frank phoned James to cover a wide range of topics, including his film debut in the immortal “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster,” his years-long friendship with the legendary Buster Keaton and his experience sharing a townhouse with Marlon Brando, Wally Cox and Maureen Stapleton. Also, James “sells” Craig T. Nelson a haunted house, a Boy Scout uniform leads to an acting career and a controversial “Jeffersons” episode nearly torpedoes a TV pitchman gig. PLUS: James parties with Clark Gable! Gilbert gets a one-cent residual check! Moe Howard recites from “The Tempest”! And James teaches a teenaged Michael Douglas to drive! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:23.1	Isn't life grande?
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0:34.9	extra protein.
0:36.3	Turn your usual iced caramel latte
0:38.3	into a smooth iced caramel protein latte.
0:41.6	Add a delicious swirl on top of your drink,
0:43.9	just like that.
0:46.5	Protein never tasted so good
0:48.0	with Starbucks new protein cold foam.
0:50.8	Subject to availability while stocks last.
0:52.9	Thank you. subject to availability while stocks last. You know, a few years ago, I was doing a movie called Jack and the Beanstalk, where I spent a month walking around a gigantic, smelly goose outfit, because I have a lot of self-respect.
1:29.4	But it had a great cast.
1:31.7	It had like Christopher Lloyd, Katie Segal, Wallace, Sean, Chevy Chase, Chloe Grace Moretz.
1:41.0	Amazing group of people.
1:43.4	And one of the people I met there, and I'll be talking about it later,
1:49.2	I've gone to detail, was an actor named James Karen,
1:55.2	who I didn't know by name, but I saw him and did that take of,
	...

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