Samuel Maccarone (March 14, 1975 – March 13, 2025), better known as Sam Macaroni, was an American actor, film director and writer who wrote, directed and stars in '' National Lampoon's TV: The Movie''. In the film, he plays Jeffrey Sutton, Dick Weston Fernandez and Chad (in ''You're in the Army Now'').

Background

Samuel Maccarone was born in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

on March 14, 1975. He grew up in

Yosemite Valley, California Yosemite Valley (''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Mariposa County, California, United States. It consists of the developed area of Yosemite Village and the other areas of the Yosemite Valley in Yosemite Nati ...

. Macaroni began his filming career at the age of eleven when he earned his first video camera doing odd jobs. He attended Mariposa County High School class of 1993. During that time he made a film series called Hobi Chow that was very popular with his classmates. Macaroni lived in

Hollywood, Los Angeles Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

from 1994, and had no children. He died from a brain aneurysm on March 13, 2025, one day before his 50th birthday.

Career

Macaroni studied at the

Stella Adler Studio of Acting The Stella Adler Studio of Acting (formerly Stella Adler Conservatory) is a prestigious acting school that was founded by actress and teacher Stella Adler.

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. He starred in

ThinkFilm ThinkFilm (stylized as TH!NKFilm) was an American film distribution company founded in September 2001. It had been a division of David Bergstein’s Capitol Films since 2006. On October 5, 2010, five of Bergstein's companies in the film indust ...

's ''Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary'' along with

Clifton Powell Clifton Powell (born March 16, 1956) is an American actor who primarily plays supporting roles in films, such as in '' Ray'' (2004), for which he received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture nomination. Ca ...

and

rapper Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

Too Short Todd Anthony Shaw (born April 28, 1966), better known by his stage name Too Short (stylized as Too $hort), is an American rapper. A pioneer of West Coast hip-hop, Shaw was among the first acts to receive recognition in the genre during the late ...

. Macaroni was a writer for the 2006

Billboard Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by '' Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of ...

as well as a

music video director A music video director is the head, overseer or facilitator of music video production. The director conceives of videos' artistic and dramatic aspects while instructing the musical act, technical crew, actors, models, and dancers. They may or ...

for MCA/

Universal Records Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

. At age 24, Macaroni sold a show to

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

called "Disco Masters" which starred Sam as a disco dancing, beer drinking superhero. He played Billy in

Les Claypool Leslie Edward Claypool (born September 29, 1963) is an American rock music, rock musician. He is the founder, lead singer, bassist, and primary songwriter of the band Primus (band), Primus. Listed as one of the greatest bassists of all time by ...

's directorial debut '' Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo''.Electric Apricot (2006)
/ref> In 2007, he was a guest on ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...

''. In 2009, he starred in a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

Via national television commercial as Roger the airline pilot. On November 17, 2009, he appeared in an episode of '' The Forgotten'' on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

.
Sam Maccarone in an episode of The Forgotten . Macaroni wrote and directed '' Guest House (2020 film), Guest House'' in 2020. He directed ''

Blackout Blackout(s), black out, or The Blackout may refer to: Loss of lighting or communication * Power outage, a loss of electric power * Blackout (broadcasting), a regulatory or contractual ban on the broadcasting of an event * Blackout (fabric), a t ...

'' in 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maccarone, Sam 1975 births 2025 deaths American male comedians American male film actors American music video directors American male screenwriters American writers of Italian descent People from Mariposa County, California Male actors from California Comedians from California Screenwriters from California 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers American people of Italian descent