Rodney Dangerfield

Pluto in Capricorn. Capricorn wants Respect and Pluto wants to take everything away. I'm already feeling that old familiar Doormat feeling. Feels like a good time to look at the chart of Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian whose persona was based on his line "I can't get no respect."

Rodney Dangerfield
b. Nov. 22, 1921 Babylon, NY (yes, that's right, he really was born in a place called Babylon).

Sun 30 Scorpio; Moon Leo or Virgo; NN 16 Libra Rx

So, I was expecting a lousy Saturn here. Saturn rules Reputation and Failure and Fear. But Dangerfield's is exalted in Libra and not Retrograde. The guy had a lot more hope than he let on, that's for sure. His Saturn is involved in a t-square, though, conjunct Mars (and widely conjunct Jupiter), opposing Chiron and squaring Pluto. This shows a lot of setbacks and a lot of drive and a lot of determination. Uranus, one of the key signs of Comedy is aspecting every planet in his chart except Neptune in Leo. Most notable it is in Pisces placed in a Grand Water Trine to a conjunction of Mercury-Venus in Scorpio and Pluto in Cancer.

Dangerfield started writing jokes for money when he was 15. He started his own Stand Up career when he was 19 (Nodal Return conjunct Jupiter-Mars-Saturn). And after 9 years gave it up to become an aluminum siding salesman in order to support his family (p.Moon and Saturn Return, t. Pluto c. n. Neptune, t. Neptune c. n. NN).

Then 1962 and 1963 were weird years for Dangerfield. Dangerfield divorced his wife in 1962 and remarried her in 1963. In 1963 he went on the Ed Sullivan Show with his new image as a pessimistic everyman type guy. And apparently he made Ed Sullivan laugh. And nobody, but nobody, made Ed Sullivan laugh. It so happens that this was right when Dangerfield was going through his Uranus opposition and Neptune Square. The woodenness of the Pluto-Mars-Saturn aspects was suddenly loosened apparently and he figured out how to use his "God-Given gifts." Also, he suddenly came into his own during his mid-life crisis years. You can't be a loser until you've actually experienced some loss (Saturn-Pluto working together).

Wikipedia says that this was an example of "Fate" intervening. I noticed that Saturn was opposing his natal Neptune and during that year the Nodes would have been layered over this opposition.

And as for Respect. I suspect this is as much a Sun thing as a Saturn thing in this case. His Image was the thing he created. And he kept his Image within the dictates of what his progressed Sun was doing in the middle of Capricorn. Determination, pessimissm, career, age, gruffness.