Friends fans will fondly remember the Ugly Naked Guy who lived in the building opposite the gang.
He was mentioned in many episodes and was even see on screen on a couple of occasions – when the friends prodded him with a giant poking device and when Ross stripped down with him in an attempt to get his apartment – but we never saw his face…until now.
Ugly Naked Guy on the receiving end of the giant poking device (NBCUniversal)
A senior writer at the Huffington Post went on a mission to unmask the man behind so many comedy moments.
For a while, IMDB and other sources led him to Michael Hagerty – the actor who played Mr Treeger but Michael denied he was UNG.
Michael Hagerty as Mr Treeger (NBCUniversal)
He hit up the casting director for both the episodes featuring the UNG, but she couldn’t shed any light.
He asked Central Casting, the agency that booked the extra for the show, they couldn’t help. He even got the show’s creator David Crane on the phone – but to no avail.
David Crane (left) with the cast of Friends (KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/AP)
Finally, he got some answers from producer Todd Stevens, who said: “Here’s what I remember – It was an extra, and we wanted it to fly under the radar because we didn’t want somebody, like, being Ugly Naked Guy. . . . We just had Central send a few people over. It was not somebody with a history on the show.”
When the diligent reporter tried Central Casting again, a year later, he got some great news: Ugly Naked Guy had come in to visit recently.
The friends looking at Ugly Naked Guy (NBCUniversal)
The actor’s name is Jon Haugen, and you can see his picture on the Huffington Post.
When the pair finally chatted on the phone, Jon said: “You want to let the world know who the real Ugly Naked Guy is, huh? There’s only one Ugly Naked Guy, man, and that was me.”
Jon added: “I wasn’t really expecting them to call me back for me to do it again. It was the best time in my life, I was the man.”
After all this time, he still wants to play the character again. He said: “I was hoping they would bring me back and we’d do some more. Maybe we can create a buzz and get everybody back together.”
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