George Lopez

Trivia

• Lopez frequently mentions his hatred for Erik Estrada. According to Lopez, he met Estrada when he was a teenager and Estrada was in the zenith of his career. Estrada refused to shake the teenager's hand, and Lopez has hated him ever since. Lopez mentioned the story while guest-hosting The Jim Rome Show, and saying "Fuck that puto." In his comedy special America's Mexican, Lopez uses this as a warning to everyone that celebrities should always be nice to their fans as they do not know who they.
• Lopez is also known for his conflict with Carlos Mencía. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Lopez accused Mencía of appropriating 13 minutes of his material in Mencía's HBO special. He also claimed he had a physical altercation with Mencía over the alleged appropriation.
• Lopez criticized Jay Leno, someone he once considered a "close friend", during an interview on radio station WOMX-FM in Orlando, Florida on January 24, 2007, stating: "He's the biggest two-faced dude in TV." He also called him a back-stabber, and said he is not a proficient interviewer.
• George turned down a role in Desperado (1995) because he doesn't want to be in films that promoted negative images of Latinos.
• George was a disc jockey on MEGA 92.3 in Los Angeles.
• He hosted the Seventh Annual Florida Sports Awards from Jacksonville's Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. [8 June 2002]
• Sandra Bullock gave George his break into TV stardom with her own production company when she sent out a scout to check the clubs for Latino talent because there were no Hispanic shows on TV.
• In October 2003, he became one of the few comedians to be able to sell-out Los Angeles' historic Universal Amphitheater for three straight nights (Oct. 10-12)
• His 2003 live comedy album, "Team Leader", was nominated for the "Best Comedy Album" Grammy in 2004, up against albums by Garrison Keillor, 'Weird Al' Yankovic', Margaret Cho and David Cross.
• George Lopez, his character on "George Lopez" (2002), was ranked #18 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue].

Quotes

• “We have so many people in the camp that it's difficult for everybody to find a porta-potty. With 90,000 people at a game, you can imagine 10,000 standing in line.”
• “The first time I saw him, I wanted to be like him, ... He was so young and cool and Latino and everybody loved him. And then when he passed, it was devastating to me. I later learned that he was tortured, like I was tortured, and I learned to fight through it.”
• “If you leak anything out, it's that we are very different."
• “Shows should just be able to be shows without hyphenating their lead characters."
• “(He) was more interested in the money than his son.”
• “I wanted my character to be accessible and nonthreatening.”
• “He was the one person who filled my house with his voice and made me not feel lonely, and made me feel my life could be worth something and that my pain could be currency for laughs.”
• “If I were going to watch anything, I'd watch that."
• “[How much does golf mean to comedian George Lopez ? When he was in Las Vegas not too long ago to play a round, he was asked to do an opening stand-up gig for Rod Stewart that night, just a quick 45 minutes of work for $130,000. But Lopez said no. He was afraid it might spoil his round if he had to worry about finishing it to get to the hotel on time.] Is he crazy? Does he know how much $130,000 is? ... I know how much it is. I've got $130,000.”
• “I think it's easier for African American and white comics to be praised than it is Latinos because they think our culture or our humor is substandard, ... I mean, I just don't think they want to give us credit. I just don't think that they see us as important enough to be at their level. ... I'm the longest-produced [comedy] at Warner Bros. and I don't feel special. They come over and say hello. But everybody's gonna make a lot of money and I don't feel like I'm special to them.”