Biography

Richard Henzel (born June 15, 1949) is a Chicago-based stage, film, TV, and voice-over actor.

He is best known as the voice of Ernie Keebler, the Keebler Elf (since 2016), and as one of the two DJ voices heard on the clock radio in the movie Groundhog Day (film). Notable stage roles include Grandpa in the world premiere of The Magic Victrola at the Chicago Lyric Opera and the world premiere of The Christians by Lucas Hnath and directed by Les Waters at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He played Norman in On Golden Pond at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, Michigan; George Bernard Shaw in Dear Liar, Verner/Hugo in Noel Coward In Two Keys, and Mark Twain In Person, all for Shaw Chicago Theatre; Henri in Heroes at The Stormfield Theatre in Lansing, MI, directed by Kristine Thatcher and also starring Gary Houston and Richard Marlatt; Mark Van Doren in Night And Her Stars for The Gift Theatre, directed by Michael Patrick Thornton; and Boss Finley in Sweet Bird of Youth at The Artistic Home Theatre directed by Dale Calandra. H

Also among his credits is his one-man stage show Mark Twain In Person in which he has appeared over a thousand times since 1967, in forty states, Canada, Great Britain, on the Mississippi River aboard the Steamboat Delta Queen, and for Royal Viking Sea's "Theatre At Sea" cruise that sailed from New York City to Montreal in 1985.