Rodney Dangerfield is gaining respect as ‘Back To School’ celebrates its 40th anniversary

Once on campus, Mellon becomes the ultimate big man on campus: he throws wild parties, clashes with academics with stuffed shirts, romances a professor and of course tries the now legendary Triple Lindy to save the big diving competition.

The film’s inspired cast mixed comedy veterans with future stars, including Sally Kellerman, Burt Young, Robert Downey Jr., William Zabka, Adrienne Barbeau, M. Emmet Walsh, Terry Farrell, Ned Beatty, Sam Kinison, Robert Picardo and Edie McClurg.

Even Kurt Vonnegut and Danny Elfman showed up in memorable cameos. What many didn’t know at the time was that Dangerfield brought more of himself to Thornton than fans realized.

Long before he became a comedy legend whose signature line was, “I’m telling you, I get no respect,” Dangerfield had worked as an acrobatic diver in Atlantic City in the 1950s and was known as an excellent swimmer.

Like Thornton, Dangerfield had also once driven a truck. Even the golf images are in Back to school was lifted from his previous hit, Caddyshack.