Chevy Chase attends ‘SNL 50’ special after slamming show — and nearly coming to blows with Bill Murray
During Steve Martin’s monologue during the SNL 50th anniversary special, John Mulaney joined his idol and dropped a shocking fact that audiences weren’t sure was a joke or true: two Saturday Night Live hosts committed murder. With the SNL50 special dropping joke after joke and deep cut after deep cut, plenty of viewers assumed there might have been one or two references that went over their heads. Still, a joke about two hosts having committed murder is hard to miss.
The moment was played as a laugh. “We writers really appreciated that tribute, but I believe the heart and soul of this show is the celebrity hosts, many of whom are in this room tonight. As I look around, I see some of the most difficult people I have ever met in my entire life,” Mulaney joked before finishing, “Over the course of 50 years, 894 people have hosted Saturday Night Live, and it amazes me that only two of them have committed murder.”
Mulaney wasn’t joking: two former Saturday Night Live hosts actually have committed murder – allegedly, according to their accusers. Of course, O.J. Simpson was arrested in 1994 and charged with the murders of his estranged wife, Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman. The trial, which unfolded from January through October 1995, was one of the most salacious and widely covered in American history. Simpson was ultimately acquitted of both murders, a decision that’s still controversial today.
For his part, Robert Blake was charged with the murder of Bonnie Lee Bakley in 2002, and his bodyguard, Earle Caldwell, was charged with conspiracy. On May 4, 2001, Bakley was shot in the head and killed in Blake’s car after they had dinner together. Stuntmen Ronald “Duffy” Hambleton and Gary McLarty both agreed to testify, saying Blake had hired them to kill Bakley. Blake’s trial began in December 2004, but was ultimately found not guilty in March 2005 after it was determined the evidence, while considerable, wasn’t enough to convict. As with Simpson, public opinion on Blake’s acquittal was divisive.
With SNL having almost 900 hosts in its lifetime, it’s almost shocking that the number of hosts charged with murder isn’t higher. However, while most Saturday Night Live guest hosts have been fantastic, there have been a few problem hosts throughout the years.
Even if they didn’t commit murder, these hosts became infamous, whether for how bad they were at hosting, how difficult they were to work with, or simply for how radioactive they became as people. A few of those problematic or failed guests on most people’s lists include Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Justin Bieber, Steven Seagal, and Milton Burle, who was actually banned from SNL after his last performance.
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Didn’t know Robert Blake had hosted. We were thinking that Alec Baldwin was the other host.
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Remembering Saturday Night Live Cast Members We’ve Lost Through the Years
As the iconic series celebrates its 50th anniversary, take a look back at the lives of its fallen stars
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Since its 1975 premiere, Saturday Night Live has featured more than 100 cast members, many of whom have gone on to become major stars in their own right. Think Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell and too many more to list here.
But over the course of a half-century, its sadly inevitable that some SNL alumni — including some of the show’s brightest stars — have died.
As SNL celebrates its 50th anniversary this weekend, we’re remembering the likes of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chris Farley and other cast members we’ve lost over the years.
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Founding SNL cast member John Belushi became a comedy legend thanks to recurring characters like “Joliet “Jake Blues of the Blues Brothers and Samurai Futaba, as well as his appearances in the show’s “Weekend Update” segments. During his time on SNL, Belushi also starred in the raucous comedy classic National Lampoon’s Animal House.
After leaving SNL following its fourth season, he reprised his Blues Brothers role opposite Dan Aykroyd in 1980’s The Blues Brothers.
Behind the scenes, Belushi was known as much for his erratic behavior and drug addiction as for his comedy chops. His cocaine addiction ultimately led to his 1982 death of an apparent overdose at the age of 33. In 2004, SNL co-creator Lorne Michaels told 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl that Belushi’s tragic death effectively ended an early period of unchecked hedonism on the show.
“There was something, a value system that was much more fraternal, in the sense of ‘Whatever gets you through the night’ or ‘Who might have judged what somebody else does as long as people show up on time, can do their job, whatever,’ ” Michaels said. “Clearly a bogus value system, and it didn’t work.”
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Following older brother and founding SNL cast member Dan Aykroyd’s departure at the end of SNL’s fourth season, Peter Aykroyd joined the show as a writer and cast member. His tenure was brief, only lasting a single season, but his work earned him a 1980 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program.
Following his own departure from SNL, Peter appeared in small and supporting roles in several of Dan’s films during the 1980s, including Doctor Detroit (1983), Spies Like Us (1985) and Dragnet (1987). The brothers collaborated on the screenplay for 1991’s Nothing but Trouble, in which Dan starred and Peter appeared in a small role, and Peter also had a part in 1993’s Coneheads. Peter created the Canadian TV show Psi Factor, with Dan hosting, which aired from 1996 to 2000. In 1997, Peter and Jim Belushi voiced the characters made famous by their brothers in the short-lived Blues Brothers: The Animated Series, though the show never aired.
In 2021, Peter died of complications from an untreated abdominal hernia at the age of 65.
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While George Coe was only billed as an SNL cast member for the show’s Oct. 11, 1975, premiere, he appeared in small parts in several other episodes. At 46, he was the oldest member of the cast during its first season and left the show after appearing in only 10 episodes.
Coe went on to appear in films like The Stepford Wives (1975), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), The Mighty Ducks (1992) and Funny People (2009). Among his dozens of TV appearances, Coe had recurring roles on The West Wing and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and voiced the role of heroin-addicted butler Woodhouse in FX’s animated spy spoof Archer.
In 2009, the Screen Actors Guild awarded Coe the Ralph Morgan Award for service. According to a 2015 Los Angeles Times obituary, Coe died at the age of 86 after battling a number illnesses, including lymphoma. He was survived by his wife, twin daughters and four grandchildren.
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Tom Davis and comedy partner Al Franken were among Saturday Night Live’s original writers when the show premiered in 1975, and Davis remained with the show until 2003. Davis was responsible for some of SNL’s most iconic characters in the ’70s and ’80s, including the Coneheads, which he created with Dan Aykroyd.
Davis went on to co-write the 1986 film One More Saturday Night with Franken and the 1993 Coneheads movie with Aykroyd, appearing in small roles in both films. He also appeared in 1998’s Blues Brothers 2000 and in director Ivan Reitman’s 2001 comedy Evolution.
In 2009, he published Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss, a memoir of his early days on SNL. That same year, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died in 2012 at the age of 59. Franken, who was then representing Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, honored Davis in a July 2012 speech from the Senate floor.
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One of the biggest breakout Saturday Night Live stars of the ’90s, Chris Farley made his debut on the show in 1990 and remained a cast member for six season, creating memorable characters like motivational speaker Matt Foley.
While on SNL, Farley’s star rose rapidly thanks to film roles in Coneheads, Wayne’s World, Wayne’s World 2 and Airheads. Getting fired from SNL along with friend and frequent collaborator Adam Sandler in 1995 didn’t slow him down. That same year, he starred alongside fellow SNL alumnus David Spade in Tommy Boy. The duo next appeared together in the 1996 comedy Black Sheep. Another blockbuster comedy starring Farley, Beverly Hills Ninja, followed in 1997.
Farley famously modeled his comedy style on his idol, John Belushi, and like Belushi, Farley also struggled with alcohol and drug addiction. During his time on SNL, he was reportedly in and out of rehab.
In 1997, Farley seemed to suggest that his partying days were done. “Let’s just say I had my share of fun,” he told Rolling Stone. “But all that s— does is kill someone. It is a demon that must be snuffed out. It is the end.”
Farley returned to SNL in October of that year, hosting for the first time. He died two months later of a drug overdose at the age of 33.
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The Gilbert Gottfried who appeared in 12 episodes of Saturday Night Live from late 1980 to early 1981 was very different from the comedian fans likely remember. He appeared in few sketches without a trace of the distinctive nasal voice that became his hallmark, and was fired in March of 1981.
But Gottfried went on to work nonstop for the next three decades. As the host of USA Up All Night from 1989 to 1998, he introduced a wider audience to his irascible, one-of-a-kind persona, while also making memorable appearances in films like Problem Child and Look Who’s Talking Too. In 1991, he hosted the 43rd Primetime Emmy Awards, sparking controversy with some of his off-color jokes. Among his many voice roles was that of talking parrot Iago in Disney’s Aladdin (1992). Gottfried reprised the role in several direct-to-video sequels and an animated TV show.
In later years, he voiced the Aflac duck in the insurance company’s commercials, losing the role in 2011 after tweeting jokes about the disastrous earthquake that hit Japan that March.
That same year, he published a comedic memoir, Rubber Balls and Liquor. In 2014, Gottfried launched his interview podcast, Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, which he continued to host until his death.
Gottfried married wife Dara Kravitz in September 2007. The couple had two children, daughter Lily and son Max.
In April 2022, Gottfried’s family announced via his official Twitter account that he had died after a “long illness.” His friend and publicist Glenn Schwartz told PEOPLE at the time that the comedian had died of recurrent ventricular tachycardia due to myotonic dystrophy type II. He was 67 years old.
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By the time he joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1986, Phil Hartman had already appeared in and lent his voice talents to many films and TV shows, including Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), which he co-wrote. During his eight-season run on SNL, Hartman was particularly known for his impressions of celebrities and politicians, most notably President Bill Clinton.
Beginning in 1991, he joined the cast of The Simpsons, voicing numerous characters, most notably Troy McClure. The long list of animated series for which Harman provided voicework in the ’80s and ’90s also included The Smurfs, DuckTales, TaleSpin and The Ren & Stimpy Show.
After leaving SNL in 1994, Hartman starred alongside fellow SNL alumnus Jon Lovitz in NBC’s NewsRadio for five seasons. His film credits include 1993’s Coneheads and So I Married an Axe Murderer, 1995’s Houseguest and 1996’s Sgt. Bilko and Jingle All the Way.
Hartman’s life was tragically cut short on May 27, 1998, when he was shot and killed by his third wife, Brynn Omdahl, who died by suicide the same night after confessing to the murder. He was 49 years old and had two children.
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Like many other SNL alumni, Jan Hooks honed her sketch comedy chops as a member of improv troupe The Groundlings before starring in HBO’s short-lived Not Necessarily the News from 1983 to 1984 and appearing in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985).
Hooks joined the cast of SNL in 1986 alongside Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman and Kevin Nealon, leading to something of a renaissance for the long-running show after several years of declining ratings. Like Hartman, she was known for her celebrity impressions, including of high-profile women like Ivana Trump, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hillary Clinton.
Hooks left the show in 1991 to replace Jean Smart on Designing Women, but continued to make guest appearances on SNL playing Clinton through 1994. She appeared in a small role in 1992’s Batman Returns and voiced Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon, convenience store owner Apu’s wife, on The Simpsons from 1997 to 2002. Her role as Vicki Dubcek in 3rd Rock from the Sun earned her a 1998 Emmy nomination. In 2010, Hooks guest starred in two memorable episodes of NBC’s 30 Rock as the con artist mother of Jane Krakowski’s Jenna Maroney.
Hooks had cancer for much of the last decade of her life. She was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2009. After going into remission, she was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. Hooks declined treatment and died at the age of 57 that same year.
“She was totally amazing as a sketch player,” SNL alumnus and former boyfriend Nealon told PEOPLE of Hooks following her death. “She so immersed herself in her characters, and her timing was amazing. She got it from some crazy stratosphere, and I was so attracted to that talent in her, and I don’t think she ever knew how well respected and admired she was for her talent.”
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Norm Macdonald was working as a writer on Roseanne when Lorne Michaels noticed him and hired him for SNL. He was a cast member from 1993 through 1998, most notably hosting “Weekend Update” for three years. His most famous impressions included Burt Reynolds, Bob Dole, Larry King, David Letterman and Quentin Tarantino. He also appeared in Adam Sandlers’ Billy Madison (1995) during that time.
Macdonald left the show in 1998 when Colin Quinn took over as “Weekend Update” anchor. However, Macdonald believed that Don Ohlmeyer, then the president of NBC’s West Coast division, purposefully had him removed because he made so many jokes about O.J. Simpson, whom Ohlmeyer was friends with.
Macdonald went on to star in his three-season series Norm and continued to perform standup. He was also a frequent guest on late-night shows.
Macdonald died in September 2021 after a private cancer battle. He was 61.
Macdonald’s last comedy special, Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special, was released eight months after his death in May 2022.
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Michael O’Donoghue was one of SNL’s first writers. He actually spoke the first line ever spoken on SNL in the show’s first sketch, in which he played a teacher instructing John Belushi. “I was terrified,” he told PEOPLE in 1989. “If I close my eyes, I can still see that moment as they were counting off 30 seconds, 15 seconds, as if a roller coaster is just at the top of the big hill and hasn’t quite been caught by gravity and gone screaming into the valley yet. I had that feeling when time stops and a big yawning abyss is below me.”
He left the series after 1979. “I got tired of dealing with this family that I was randomly assigned to and suddenly had to spend 24 hours a day, six days a week with. We all got so convoluted,” he said. However, he returned to the series in 1981 to help the then-faltering show. He left permanently in 1986.
O’Donoghue appeared in movies like Manhattan, Wall Street and Scrooged, which he co-wrote.
He died from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1995 at age 54. His memoir, Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O’Donoghue, was published in 1998.
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Gilda Radner, who was a star of the Second City in Chicago, was the first woman Lorne Michaels hired in 1975, and she was one of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players’ brightest starts. “If Saturday Night Live was like Never-Never-Land, the Island of Lost Boys, she was Tinker Bell,” Anne Beatts, the show’s former head writer, told PEOPLE in 1989. “She just hadn’t lost touch with the child in her.” One of her most famous characters was “Baba Wawa,” a parody of Barbara Walters. She won an Emmy in 1978 and starred in the acclaimed 1979 one-woman show Gilda Radner – Live from New York.
Radner left the series in 1980 and starred in movies like First Family, The Woman In Red and Haunted Honeymoon.
In 1984, she married Willy Wonka star Gene Wilder. The couple met while making the 1982 movie Hanky Panky directed by Sidney Poitier. Wilder helped her recover from substance abuse issues and eating disorders.
Radner died in May 1989 at age 42 from ovarian cancer. Wilder reflected on her death, and the long road she took to a diagnosis, in an emotional essay for PEOPLE in 1991. “Gilda’s grandmother, her cousin and her aunt had ovarian cancer, but she didn’t know it,” he wrote. “If only they had taken a thorough family history, she would have found out. So many of the doctors wrote off what Gilda was telling them by saying she was a high-strung, emotional, nervous girl.” The actor, who died in 2016, started working to raise awareness about the disease, writing, “I’m hoping in some small way to help the other Gildas out there.” Her legacy has lived on through Gilda’s Club (now Cancer Support Community), which offers support and education to people with cancer and their loved ones.
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Charles Rocket anchored SNL’s “Weekend Update” while the show was in the middle of a shift. When Rocket signed onto the show in 1980, SNL’s executive producer Lorne Michaels left, followed by several other cast members.
Dallas actress Charlene Tilton hosted SNL in 1981, and in one sketch, played a woman involved with Rocket in a “Who shot J.R.?” parody. In an act of jealousy, Rocket’s character was shot during the sketch. During the final goodbye at the end of the show, Tilton asked Rocket how it felt, and he replied in character, “Oh man, it’s the first time I’ve ever been shot in my life. I’d like to know who the f— did it.”
When executive producer Jean Doumanian left, Dick Ebersol took her place and dismissed Rocket and several other cast members.
SNL castmate Gilbert Gottfried said of the actor, “Yes, he was ‘The guy who said the f-word on SNL’ — but he was more than that. Off-camera he was personable and friendly.”
In 2005, Rocket died by suicide. He was 56 years old.
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Tony Rosato got his start on SNL in 1981, staying for only one season. Rosato’s fellow cast members included Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo. Rosato left SNL due to differences with executive producer Dick Ebersol and an expired contract.
In the early 2000s Rosato was diagnosed with a rare mental illness called Capgras syndrome, which is characterized by delusions of one’s family members being replaced by impersonators. Prior to his diagnosis, Rosato spent time in a maximum-security facility after being charged with criminal harassment, the New York Times reported.
The actor was released in 2009, and then returned to work. He died in 2017 from a heart attack at his home in Toronto. He was 62.
SNL paid tribute to Rosato four days after his death, during the Jan. 14, 2017, episode.
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Danitra Vance was a cast member during the notorious 1985 to 1986 season 11 (a.k.a. “The Weird Year”). She was involved in improv and had a strong theater background (even studying drama in London) before she was cast in the series. She was the first Black woman to become an SNL repertory player and the second lesbian (though her sexuality was private until her death). Frustratingly, she was often relegated to small bit parts.
Vance left SNL after that one season and returned to theater. She won an NAACP Image Award and an Obie Award for her performance in the theatrical adaptation of Spunk, based on the work of Zora Neale Hurston. She was also part of the original cast of George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum. She also appeared in movies like 1988’s Sticky Fingers, 1989’s The War of the Roses, 1989’s Limit U, 1991’s Hangin’ with the Homeboys and 1991’s Little Man Tate.
She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991 and created a solo show, The Radical Girl’s Guide to Radical Mastectomy, based on her experience. Vance died of breast cancer at 40 years old in 1994; she was survived by her partner, Jones Miller.
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Dan Vitale was one of the shortest-tenured cast members, credited for only three episodes in the 1985 to 1986 season. The cast included Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr., Joan Cusack and Randy Quaid.
“Arguably, that season is considered … I don’t know who keeps track of this stuff, but comedy historians might say this is one of the worst seasons,” he joked with Vulture in 2020.
“I wound up spending most of that year in rehab,” he explained of his absences. “I am totally at peace with every success I did not have. Because at the time, if I had any more success or access to money, there’s too many guys that are dead, and it would have been a death sentence.”
Before his SNL tenure, Vitale also appeared on Lorne Michaels’ short-lived NBC variety show The New Show. After SNL, he continued to work as a comedian.
Vitale died in May 2022 at 66 years old.
Though not technically a cast member, Don Pardo served as the voice of SNL, starting in season 1 and working through the end of season 39, shortly before his death on Aug. 18, 2014, at the age of 96.
“Every year the new cast couldn’t wait to hear their name said by him,” Lorne Michaels told The New York Times upon Pardo’s death.
Pardo was a longtime NBC employee and television announcer before Michaels hired him as the show’s voice; he rarely appeared on camera but was a constant presence on the series.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he held a lifetime contract with the show, even after his retirement from NBC. He also became the first announcer to be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, in 2010.
Former cast member Darrell Hammond stepped into the announcer role after Pardo left the show in May of 2014.
“There’s something to be said of a really classy dude who you just dig and everyone digs them,” Hammond told Grantland at the time. “He was as emblematic of the show as any I can think of.”
