Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman, January 17, 1949 (New York, N.Y.) - May 16, 1984 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
VP candidate for Independent (2016)
Running mate with nominee: Christopher Walken (b. 1943)
Popular vote: ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The "Christopher Walken for President" movement, if you could call it that, was one of the better political pranks for the 2008 election. It looked serious enough that a number of news outlets were initially taken in. A sober looking webpage helped feed the confabulation. Walken's people were obliged to issue a statement that the whole thing was a joke perpetrated by unknown tricksters.
But the concept has endured and a cottage industry has emerged in each election cycle since 2008 merchandising items promoting the election of the actor. A number of running-mates have been suggested for Walken, including Gary Busey, but the person I will highlight is Andy Kaufman who was suggested in 2016. Although he had been dead since 1984, claims that he is still alive persist to this day so the Walken/Kaufman ticket was something of two hoaxes for the price of one!
One of the Walken for President Facebook groups touted Kaufman as the running-mate on Apr. 30, 2015--
#BREAKINGFUTUREPRESIDENTNEWS: Andy Kaufman is running as Vice President alongside our dear Future President, Christopher Walken
. Shaking babies and kissing hands has really oomphed up this campaign! Congratulations to Future Vice President, Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman and tankuveddymuch to each one of you, for your support this voting season!
But then, on June 28, 2016, the same source posted--
Sad news folks. We were excited to have Andy Kaufman as our Vice President, but he disappeared again. Any takers?
You can keep your political tribalism, to me there are two kinds of people in the world: Those who think Kaufman was hilarious, and those who don't. I'm in the camp of the former. The guy was a comedy genius.
Election history: none
Other occupations: comedian, actor, wrestler
Buried: Beth David Cemetery (Elmont, N.Y.)
Notes:
Buried in the same cemetery as Joyce Brothers, Martin Landau, Abe Vigoda, and Herman Wouk. In a strange bit of symmetry from 1984-2016 Kaufman was dead but was rumored to be alive, Vigoda was alive while constantly rumored to be dead.
