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Phil Hartman Biography

(1948-1998)

Related Works

Saturday Night Live
Newsradio

Actor, comedian. Born Philip Edward Hartman on September 24, 1948 in Ontario, Canada. Best known for his deadpan antics and celebrity impersonations on Saturday Night Live, Hartman got his start working with comedian Paul Reubens to develop the hit movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and its subsequent TV series. Hartman signed on with SNL as a writer and actor in 1986 and stayed on as a regular with the show until 1994, winning a shared Emmy along the way.

After leaving SNL, Hartman joined the ensemble cast of the sitcom Newsradio as a pompous, self-important anchorman. In addition to the television series, he appeared in such feature films as 1987’s Blind Date and 1996’s Jingle All the Way.

Off-screen, Hartman reportedly had marital difficulties with his wife, Brynn, who had struggled for years with drug and alcohol abuse. On May 28, 1998, tragedy struck when Brynn shot Hartman to death while he was sleeping in their Encino, California, home. She shot herself shortly after, leaving behind a son and a daughter, Sean and Birgen.