| Jeff Anderson is a film actor best known for his performance as Randal Graves in Kevin Smith's 1994 cult-smash debut Clerks. He also has a small handful of other credits, yet Clerks was his most famous by far and a role he has reprised many times over.
In 1993, Jeff Anderson was working for AT&T and studying architecture when his friend from Henry Hudson Regional High School, Kevin Smith, a recent dropout from Vancouver Film School asked him to audition for his debut film "Clerks." Despite the fact that Jeff had never acted before, he not only got a part in the film, but got the part of Randal Graves, the lead supporting character that Kevin had wrote for himself.
"Clerks" went on to make 116 times what it cost to make, making it one of the biggest independent film successes of all time. Jeff Anderson was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. He was nominated alongside Alicia Witt, Jeremy Davies and Renée Zellweger and ended up losing to Sean Nelson for his role in Fresh. He also appeared as Randal in the music video for Soul Asylum's "Can't Even Tell," the single off the "Clerks" soundtrack.
Yet, according to the 10th Anniversary Clerks DVD, Kevin and Jeff had a big misunderstanding after Jeff was shafted on a portion of the check Kevin recieved after he sold "Clerks" to Miramax. Not to mention Kevin referring to Anderson as a "prima donna" as a result of him never acting before and then demanding a contract with Miramax. That mess resulted in Anderson shying away from film after "Clerks" and his Indie Spirit Award nomination. Yet married Lisa Spoonhauer, who played Catlin Bree in "Clerks."
In 1998, while Kevin was filming Dogma, he patched up things with Anderson, and he made his first film appearance since "Clerks" as a gun salesman in Smith's 1999 release "Dogma."
From there, Anderson started working as a film actor again. Having sizable roles in independent films such as Love 101 and Rennie's Landing.
In 2000, he reprised his character (or at least the voice of his character) Randal Graves for the ABC show Clerks: The Animated Series, which was tragically cancelled after only two episodes yet found a new life on DVD.
In 2001, he did the Randal thing one more time for Kevin Smith's final film in the View Askewniverse (although the death of the View Askewniverse is now in question) with his appearance in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. He then officially slammed the door on the View Askewniverse by reprising Randal one last time in the short film The Flying Car, written & directed by Kevin Smith. It aired on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on February 27th, 2002 and was the first short film ever commissioned by The Tonight Show.
Jeff released a film written, directed by and starring himself in a limited release in December 2002 titled Now You Know. The film was selected for the 2002 San Diego Film Festival, 2002 Greenwich Film Festival, screened at the View Askew run festival Vulgarthon '02 and is available on DVD.
Featured on the 2004 DVD release "Clerks X" is "Clerks: The Lost Scene" in which Anderson gain voices Randal in the animated nine minute short.
An exact time in unknown but Jeff has since divorced Lisa Spoonhauer. Jeff Anderson will reprise his character of Randal Graves yet again in Clerks 2 due out in 2006.
Sources:
www.imdb.com
www.newsaskew.com
www.nowyouknowthemovie.com
| 
