Gabe Kaplan

Gabe Kaplan

Active - 1976 - 2023  |   Born - Mar 31, 1945 in Brooklyn, New York, United States  |   Genres - Comedy, Drama, Music

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Biography by AllMovie

Standup comedian and actor Gabe Kaplan is best known for playing the title role in the television series Welcome Back Kotter (1975-1979), the sitcom that launched the career of actor John Travolta. Following the show's cancellation, Kaplan continued to appear occasionally in feature films and TV movies. He made his big-screen debut in Fast Break (1979). In 1981, Kaplan starred in the short-lived series Lewis and Clark as a New Yorker who buys a small country & western bar in Texas, and since then has seldom been seen, but for the rare guest-starring appearance on series such as Murder She Wrote. When not acting, Kaplan focuses on his standup comedy. Kaplan is also a world-class poker player, a skill he used to wonderful effect when he acted in the ad-libbed poker comedy The Grand.

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Factsheet

  • Originally aspired to become a Major League baseball player.
  • Began his stand-up career by performing in small nightclubs, coffee houses and Playboy clubs.
  • Big break came during the early 1970s, when he made five appearances on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.
  • Best-known for the role of Gabe Kotter, teacher of a class of underachievers, on Welcome Back, Kotter, a series he cocreated based on his own high-school experiences.
  • An avid poker player, he made his first appearance at the World Series of Poker in 1978.
  • Biggest poker win came in July of 2004, as he placed third in a World Poker Tour Texas Hold 'Em event, netting more than $250,000.