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A Series of Unfortunate Events: With Neil Patrick Harris, Patrick Warburton, Malina Pauli Weissman, Louis Hynes. After the loss of their parents in a mysterious fire, the three Baudelaire children face trials and tribulations attempting to uncover dark family secrets.
- (68K)
- 2017-01-13
- Adventure, Comedy, Drama
- 55
When a mysterious fire destroys their home and kills their parents, the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, are placed in the care of their distant 'relative' Count Olaf, an actor who is determined to claim the family fortune for himself.
- Black Comedy Drama [1]
Olaf is a failing actor (though he claimed to have been considered for major acting awards) and is after the Baudelaire fortune. He and his acting troupe follow the children with dogged determination to obtain their inheritance and kill them.
- Overview
- Biography
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
Neil Patrick Harris is the American actor who portrays Count Olaf on Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events. He also sings the intro song, “Look Away” and the Season 3 version of "That's Not How the Story Goes", as Count Olaf.
Neil Patrick Harris was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 15, 1973. His parents, Sheila Gail (Scott) and Ronald Gene Harris, were lawyers and ran a restaurant. He grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico, a small town 120 miles south of Albuquerque, where he first took up acting in the fourth grade. While tagging along with his older brother of 3 years, Harris won the part of Toto in a school production of The Wizard of Oz (1939).
His parents moved the family to Albuquerque in 1988, the same year that Harris made his film debut in two movies: Purple People Eater (1988) and Clara's Heart (1988), which starred Whoopi Goldberg. A year later, when Neil was 16, he landed the lead role in Steven Bochco's television series about a teen prodigy doctor at a local hospital, Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989), which launched Harris into teen-heartthrob status. The series lasted1989-1993 and earned him a People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Series (1990) and a Golden Globe Nomination (1990). Harris attended the same high school as Freddie Prinze Jr., La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. Neil acted on stage in a few plays while there, one of which was his senior play, Fiddler on the Roof (1971), in which he portrayed Lazar Wolf the butcher (1991).
When "Doogie Howser, M.D." stopped production in 1993, Harris took up stage acting, which he had always wanted to do. After a string of made-for-television movies, Harris acted in his first big screen roles in nine years, Starship Troopers (1997) with Casper Van Dien and then The Proposition (1998). In July 1997, Harris accepted the role of Mark Cohen for the Los Angeles production of the beloved musical, Rent (2005). His performance in "Rent" garnered him a Drama-League Award in 1997. He continued in the musical, to rave reviews, until January 1998. He later reprised the role for six nights in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in December 1998.
In 1999, Harris returned to television in the short-lived sitcom Stark Raving Mad (1999), with Tony Shalhoub. He was also in the big-screen projects The Next Best Thing (2000) and Undercover Brother (2002), and he can be heard as the voice of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the newest animated Spider-Man (2003) series. Harris has continued his stage work, making his Broadway debut in 2001 in "Proof." He has also appeared on stage in "Romeo and Juliet," "Cabaret," Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert (2001), and, most recently, "Assassins." In 2005, Harris returned to the small screen in a guest-starring role on Numb3rs (2005) and a starring role in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother (2005). Neil played the title role in the web-exclusive musical comedy Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (2008), widely downloaded via iTunes to become the #1 TV series for five straight weeks, despite not actually being on television.
Daniel Handler and Barry Sonnenfeld wanted to cast Harris after viewing his musical number from the 2011 Tony Awards, "It's Not Just for Gays Anymore." They thought he would be perfect to "play someone who could make fun of villainy but still be scary." When Sonnenfeld was at a Thanksgiving Dinner that Harris and his family also attended, and Harris was doing magic tricks. Sonnenfeld told him, "Hey, there's a show coming up that I haven't been hired for yet, and I can't tell you anything about it, but if I do get hired, I'd love for you to be the star." Harris simply said, "Okay."
Netflix executive Ted Biaselli originally thought of Harris more as Snicket than Olaf, but he was later blown away by Harris's performance.
Harris found his casting as Olaf to be "an opportunity to do something creative, fearless, and physically transformative." He had a huge respect for the challenges the crew put themselves through, and said that every person working on the show was so overwhelmed with appreciation for the project.
He decided to say specific words very theatrically- such as "fortune"- due to Olaf's trait of pontification and loving to hear himself speak. He stated that he was happy to be around the Baudelaires, as he was finally able to perform his monologues to someone, as he was mainly alone, but when Esmé and Carmelita began to tag along, he realized early on that it was a terrible decision. Early in Season 2, he and Ally decided to work with the angle that Fernald was in love with Olaf.
Harris had to sit for three-and-a-half hours in makeup to get all the prosthetics on to transform him into Count Olaf. There was a lot of gluing involved, and upon the beginning of Season 2, the makeup department found the best glue had been discontinued and they had to rush to stockpile $350 jars on eBay. Harris would finish his routine by spraying himself with a cologne that gave him a funky stench to get into character. He was fascinated by the makeup process every day, and very proud of the team who made it look perfect.
One of his biggest influences for Count Olaf was Alan Rickman as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, as he could be evil without raising his voice or moving his face much.
Jan 13, 2017 · The Emmy and Tony award-winning Neil Patrick Harris brings Olaf to life here, looking near unrecognisable underneath a sinister nose and monobrow.
The siblings are saddled with an evil guardian named Count Olaf (portrayed by Emmy-winning actor Neil Patrick Harris), who will do whatever it takes to get his hands on the Baudelaires'...
May 15, 2023 · Olaf: You know, some people say that the hardest job in the world is raising a child. But it is nothing compared to conceiving, writing, directing, producing, and performing in a theatrical presentation for the purposes of stealing their dead parents' fortune.
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