Gilda Radner

Gilda Radner gained recognition through the eccentric, outsized personalities she brought to life on Saturday Night Live, and later through the personal resilience she displayed while confronting ovarian cancer, a battle she chose to discuss openly in her memoir It's Always Something. Those early Not-So-Ready-for-Prime-Time experiences opened the door to a solo Broadway showcase titled Gilda Radner: Live From New York.

Known as the Sweetheart of American Comedy, she created enduringly quotable figures such as the snot-nosed geek Lisa Loobner—an obvious forerunner to the Mary Catherine Gallagher character later popularized in Superstar—and Roseanne Roseanna Danna, the Weekend Update commentator famous for her “hair don’t.” Additional standouts in her gallery, among them the elderly Emily Litella and the hard-rocking Candy Slice, helped secure her a 1978 Emmy for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Variety or Musical; she had also received a nomination the previous year. During the SNL era she was said to have struggled with an eating disorder, a fact she later confirmed in her autobiography. She dated Martin Short briefly before marrying a member of the Saturday Night Live Band, a union that lasted a couple of years.

After departing the series she headlined her own Broadway vehicle and then appeared in Lunch Hour under Mike Nichols’s direction. In contrast to fellow original cast members Jane Curtin and Loraine Newman, Radner moved into a steady stream of high-profile though seldom blockbuster film roles. She encountered her second husband, Gene Wilder, while filming Hanky Panky. The couple remained childless yet kept a dog named Sparkle that carried the rings at their wedding. Together they appeared in The Woman in Red, which also featured Kelly LeBrock, and in Haunted Honeymoon during the 1980s; Radner’s other screen credits include First Family, It Came From Hollywood, and Movers and Shakers.

Her mother had named her after the title character of a 1946 Rita Hayworth film. Born in Detroit, Radner attended Liggett High School and left the University of Michigan before her studies were complete. She next made her way to Toronto, where she made her stage debut in the 1972 production of Godspell. Her first film appearance came the following year in The Last Detail. Shortly afterward she joined the original Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players, the ensemble that launched Saturday Night Live.

Radner died in 1989, leaving behind a dual legacy of humor and bravery. In tribute, Gene Wilder founded Gilda’s Club in New York in 1993, the first of several free counseling centers for cancer patients and their families that later opened across the United States.