Posted on 09/14/2021 12:20:22 PM PDT by Red Badger
MacDonald is dead at 61 after nine-year private battle with cancer…
Norm Macdonald, whose laconic delivery of sharp and incisive observations made him one of Saturday Night Live‘s most influential and beloved cast member, has died.
Macdonald’s death was announced to Deadline by his management firm Brillstein Entertainment. The comedian’s longtime producing partner and friend Lori Jo Hoekstra, who was with him at the time of his death this morning, said Macdonald had been battling cancer for nearly a decade but was determined to keep his health struggles private, away from family, friends and fans.
“He was most proud of his comedy,” Hoekstra said. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”
Macdonald was an SNL cast member from 1993-98, making his greatest impact as the anchor of the show’s “Weekend Update” segments for three seasons. Remembered both for his droll style — and for his refusal to go easy on O.J. Simpson despite reported pressure from SNL execs — Macdonald would prove one of the most impactful “Update” anchors, pivoting away from the slapstick approach of Chevy Chase and toward the more barbed political approach of his successor Colin Quinn.
Born on October 17, 1959, in Quebec City, Macdonald started his show business career in the comedy clubs of Canada, developing the deadpan style that would become both his trademark and a highly influential touchstone for a generation of comics. A contestant on Star Search in 1990, he was hired to write for Roseanne Barr’s sitcom Roseanne for the 1992-93 season before landing a coveted gig at NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Macdonald’s departure from the show was controversial in itself, and he often attributed his firing to his continued lambasting of O.J. Simpson as a murderer despite what he said was the displeasure of Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC’s West Coast division, who Macdonald said was a friend of Simpson.
Take 5. I was referring to comment #37.
Probably caused by cancer meds. He was very handsome in his younger years.
Google his appearance with Jon Stewart 10 days after the death of Steve Irwin.
Hilarious! Ironically, only a handful of celebrity deaths have really saddened me, and they include Norm MacDonald and Steve Irwin. Others include James Gandolfini and of course Rush Limbaugh.
Mike Tyson’s Mysteries is the kind of show you secretly wished Scooby Doo would be. And Norm put it over the top!
Funny to the end!
We lost two of our biggest voices this year in Rush and Norm.
Really
Saturday nite at 1030
Only the lazy non workers watched it?
I’m calling bullshit on that hoss
That rates with the guy telling me that SNL “never was funny. You had to be stoned or drunk to think that it was”.
Sour grapes from someone who was too young at the time to appreciate it is my guess.
Rosanne Rosannadanna rules.
That poster is a scold....pretty much 90% of his or her scant posting here
Which I realize isn’t very distinguishing here lol
SNL was of course always left leaning at least.....but it was still funny once
Very funny....what’s political about wild and crazy guys or belushi samurai
My ping was meant for another thread. My apologies.
No prob, thanks.
Imagine what seeing this skit does to the humorless scolds. The ones here as well as the ones now in charge of SNL.
Weekend Update featuring Olga Korbut
The All Bee Band was, well, different:
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