50 facts about Howie Mandel: a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent

50 things about NBC's America's Got Talent judge Howie Mandel.

1. Howard Michael "Howie" Mandel is a Canadian comedian, actor, television host, and voice actor.

2. Howie Mandel is well known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts.

3. Before his career as a game show host, Howie Mandel was best known for his role as rowdy ER intern Dr. Wayne Fiscus on the NBC medical drama St. Elsewhere.

4. Howie Mandel is also well known for being the creator and star of the children's cartoon Bobby's World.

5. On June 6, 2009, he hosted the 2009 Game Show Awards on GSN.

6. Howie Mandel became a judge on NBC's America's Got Talent, replacing David Hasselhoff, in the fifth season of the reality talent contest.

7. Howie Mandel has mysophobia (an irrational fear of germs) to the point that he does not shake hands with anyone, including contestants on Deal or No Deal, unless he is wearing latex gloves.

8. One exception to this occurred during the 232 episode of America's Got Talent in which a contestant hypnotized him and convinced him to shake his hand and the hands of the other three judges.

9. Howie Mandel was born and lived in the Willowdale area of Toronto, Ontario.

10. Howie Mandel is Jewish (his ancestors emigrated from Romania and Poland) and a distant cousin to violinist Itzhak Perlman.

11. His father was a lighting manufacturer and a real estate agent.

12. After getting expelled from his high school (William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute) for impersonating a member of the school board and signing a construction contract to make an addition to his school, Mandel became a carpet salesman who would later open a carpet sales business of his own.

13. Howie Mandel was a stand-up comedian at Yuk Yuk's in Toronto and by September 1978 had a week-long booking as featured act, billed as "a wild and crazy borderline psychotic."

14. His repertoire included placing a latex glove over his head and inflating it by blowing through his nose, the fingers of the glove extending above his head like a cockscomb.

15. When the audience reacted uproariously to that and similar antics, his trademark response was to extend his arms palms up, look incredulous, and ask "What? What?"

16. On a trip to Los Angeles, Mandel performed a set at The Comedy Store, which resulted in his becoming a regular performer there.

17. A producer for the comedic game show Make Me Laugh saw him and booked Mandel for several appearances during the show's run in 1979.

18. Howie Mandel was booked to open for David Letterman at shows in the summer of 1979.

19. CBC-TV's head of variety programming saw his performance in October 1979 and immediately signed him for a TV special.

20. In 1980, he won the lead role in the Canadian movie Gas, co-starring Susan Anspach and Donald Sutherland. Mandel was one of the first "VeeJays" to appear on Nickelodeon's music video series, Pop Clips.

21. Howie Mandel came to national attention in the U.S. during a six-year run on St. Elsewhere, starting in 1982 and playing the role of Dr. Wayne Fiscus, opposite the late Ed Flanders and Norman Lloyd, with whom he remains good friends as of 2015.

22. While working as Dr. Fiscus, and continuing to work as a comedian, he also did movies, including his role as the voice of Gizmo in the 1984 hit Gremlins and its 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

23. In 1985 Mandel made a cameo in the Michael J. Fox directed short "The Iceman Hummeth" which was subsequently broadcast on Late Night with David Letterman in November 1985.

24. Howie Mandel performed his stand-up comedy act in several cities (the Watusi Tour), which was followed by his Watusi music video in 1987.

25. For the first two seasons of Muppet Babies, he voiced Bunsen Honeydew, Animal and Skeeter.

26. Howie Mandel also hosted the first season, 2012, of the game show Take It All.

27. Howie Mandel was also the creator and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated children's animated series Bobby's World (1990-1998), to which he supplied the voices of the title character and his father (using Howie's "normal" voice for Bobby's dad). Bobby's World ran for eight seasons on Fox and was later syndicated.

28. Howie Mandel also plays his alter-ego, Phil Skorjanc, in most of his comedy shows and these are a fan favorite.

29. Howie Mandel voiced the lead character, Little Howie, of the video game Tuneland.

30. Howie Mandel starred in the sketch comedy series, Howie Mandel's Sunny Skies, in 1995 on Showtime.

31. Howie Mandel appeared in the 1995 Clint Black country music video "Summer's Comin'".

32. Howie Mandel played the lead role of the professor in the short-lived TV series The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys, and guest-starred on a 1996 episode of the ABC TV series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as DC Comics supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk.

33. In 1998 he hosted his own syndicated talk show, The Howie Mandel Show, which was canceled after one season.

34. In 2007, he guest-starred as himself in an episode of NBC's Medium, making a dream cameo of himself on Deal or No Deal. In that episode, he booted off the nighttime drama's protagonist for "cheating", since in the show he is a psychic medium and appeared to "know" the contents of the cases.

35. Mandel's signature stunt as a stand-up comedian (besides his Bobby alter-ego) was stretching a latex glove over his head and inflating it with his nostrils, filling it until it suddenly propelled itself off his head. This trick also lent itself to the title and cover photo of his comedy album, Fits Like a Glove (1986).

36. He eventually gave up the routine under doctor's orders after being diagnosed with a perforated sinus. However, in a cameo role as himself on My Name is Earl, he did the routine.

37. Howie Mandel guest starred in two episodes of Monk ("Mr. Monk Joins a Cult" and "Mr. Monk's 100th Case").

38. Howie Mandel is known for his frequent appearances as a comedian and for his hidden camera segments on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

39. Howie Mandel has appeared in many television commercials for Boston Pizza as their hired spokesperson.

40. In April 2004, he was selected as number 82 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand up comedians of all time.

41. In October 2005, he was named to be the host of the U.S. version of Deal or No Deal, which debuted on December 19, 2005, on NBC and became a popular program in early 2006.

42. Howie Mandel also hosts Deal or No Deal Canada; originating from Toronto, Deal or No Deal Canada debuted in January 2007 on Global, which made him one of the few game show hosts (Weakest Link's Anne Robinson, The Chair‍ '​s John McEnroe, Pyramid‍ '​s Donny Osmond, The Singing Bee‍ '​s Joey Fatone, and Minute to Win It‍ '​s Darren McMullen being others) to host both a domestic and an international version of the same game show.

43. Howie Mandel joins Alex Trebek, Jim Perry and Geoff Edwards on the list of game show hosts who emceed one game show simultaneously on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border.

44. In 2007, Mandel made an appearance in an episode of Sesame Street's 38th season.

45. Howie Mandel was parodied on the show as Howie Eatswell, the Muppet host of Sesame‍ '​s game show segment "Meal or No Meal".

46. Howie Mandel has hosted the DVD game version of Deal or No Deal, "Fact or Crap Beat Da Bomb" and "Would You Rather" for Imagination Games.

47. He met his wife Terry in high school, and married her in 1980.

48. They have three children: daughters Jackie and Riley, and son Alex.

49. Howie Mandel also has two adopted nephews, Austin and Zack Mandel.

50. Howie Mandel is also a distant cousin of Itzhak Perlman, an Israeli-American violinist and composer.

Source: Wikipedia.org