“Taxi” Star Andy Kaufman's Best Friend Reveals the Childhood Trauma That Led the Late Comedian to the Spotlight

One moment in Andy Kaufman's life changed everything that came after it.

Close friends and family appear in Thank You Very Much, the newly released documentary on the life of the late comedian and star of the ABC sitcom Taxi. (He played mechanic Latka Gravas.) Created by Emmy-nominated director Alex Braverman, the film explores how Kaufman's unusual approach to comedy came to be.

Up until he was nearly 5, Kaufman enjoyed a close relationship with his grandfather, whom he called Papu. One day, the little boy's parents informed him that Papu had left to go traveling.

It was devastating for the child, who couldn't understand why the person closest to him would leave without saying goodbye.

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The reality was that Kaufman's grandfather had died, but his parents didn't think a child his age could wrap their mind around the concept of death. So they stuck with the lie, which Kaufman realized was a lie when he got older.

In archival footage, Andy’s dad, Stanley Kaufman admits the idea "might have been the wrong thing to tell someone like Andy."

"Andy kept looking for Papu to come back," he explains, recalling how the little boy spent long stretches staring out his window without saying a word.

"And I suspect, maybe that's why he was looking out the window, and maybe that's why he was sad," his father notes.

Writer Bob Zmurda, Kaufman's best friend, shares how that deep disappointment in childhood changed the direction of the comedian's life.

"This is where it all starts. There'd be no Andy Kaufman, if it wasn't for this. And think of the pain of that, okay? The pain of rejection, embarrassment, rejection! This is the magic ingredient that happened as a youth. And at that point, that little boy then just gets closeted in his room."

Kaufman appeared on Taxi from 1978 to 1983 before dying from lung cancer in 1984. He was later immortalized in the R.E.M. hit "Man on the Moon" and the 1999 film Man on the Moon, in which Jim Carrey played Kaufman.

Thank You Very Much is out now. Visit here for information on how to watch the film.

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