Gilda Radner | |
|---|---|
 Radner asRoseanne Roseannadanna in 1980 | |
| Born | (1946-06-28)June 28, 1946 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | May 20, 1989(1989-05-20) (aged 42) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1972–1989 |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | Steve Ballmer (second cousin) |
Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian.
Radner was one of the sevenoriginal cast members of theNBCsketch comedy seriesSaturday Night Live from its inception in1975 until her departure in1980. In her sketches onSNL, she played various original characters on the show'sWeekend Update segment, such as the elderly, hard-of-hearingEmily Litella and the advice specialistRoseanne Roseannadanna, who rarely offered advice but often provided disgusting, off-topic stories. Radner won anEmmy Award for her performances on the show in 1978. She also portrayed those characters, among others, in her one-woman showGilda, Live onBroadway in 1979 and lateron film in 1980.
After leavingSaturday Night Live, Radner appeared in various films, including three with her future husbandGene Wilder, with whom she first appeared in 1982'sHanky Panky. She also worked on stage, appearing in theBroadway playLunch Hour withSam Waterston in 1980. She also continued to work on network andcable television, making appearances onLorne Michaels'The New Show andIt's Garry Shandling's Show.
After nearly a year ofmisdiagnoses, Radner was diagnosed withovarian cancer in 1986 and died from the disease in 1989. Shortly before her death, she published her autobiography,It's Always Something, which dealt frankly with her life, work, and personal struggles, including her struggles with the illness. Her widower,Gene Wilder, carried out her wish that information about her illness would be used to help other people living with cancer, founding—and inspiring the founding of—organizations that emphasize earlydiagnosis, attention tohereditary factors, andsupport for cancer patients.
Posthumously, Radner won aGrammy Award in 1990, was inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1992, and received a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame in 2003. Other comedians have cited Radner as an influence on their work.
Radner was born inDetroit, Michigan, toJewish parents Henrietta (née Dworkin), a legal secretary, and Herman Radner, a businessman.[1][2] In Radner's autobiography, she stated, "I was named after my grandmother whose name began withG, but 'Gilda' came directly fromthe movie withGlenn Ford andRita Hayworth."[3] Through her mother, Radner was a second cousin of business executiveSteve Ballmer.[4] She grew up in Detroit and spent the winters inMiami Beach, Florida,[5] along with an older brother, Michael, and the family'snanny, Elizabeth Clementine Gillies, whom she called "Dibby" (and upon whom she based her famous characterEmily Litella).[6]
Radner was close to her father, who operated Detroit's Seville Hotel, where many nightclub performers and actors stayed while they were performing in the city.[7] He took her on trips to New York to seeBroadway shows.[8] When Radner was 12, her father developed abrain tumor. Within days, he was bedridden, and he was unable to communicate. He remained in that condition until he died two years later.[9] Radner's father was known to say "It's always something," the quote that would become associated with Radner'sSNL characterRoseanne Roseannadanna and the title of her autobiography.[10][11]
Radner traced her sense of humor to her family growing up, describing her father to be "real funny", "loved to sing [...] and tap dance. I feel that some part of my father is back alive in me, back doing what he always wanted to do."[12] She said her mother "[wasn't] consciously funny, but almost the only thing that gets through to her is to make her laugh. She has an infectious response to humor so it was a way of getting to her when nothing else worked."[5] Radner also said her nanny "Dibby" helped her develop her sense of humor, teaching her to laugh at herself before other kids could.[13]
As a child, Radner developed eating disorders, and would eat large amounts of food before going on diets. She wrote in her autobiography that she "coped with stress by having every possible eating disorder from the time I was nine years old. I have weighed as much as 160 pounds and as little as 93. When I was a kid, I overate constantly."[14]
Radner attended theUniversity Liggett School inGrosse Pointe Woods from 1957 to 1964.[15] In 1964, Radner graduated from Liggett and enrolled at theUniversity of Michigan atAnn Arbor.[16] Sources vary on what she majored in; Radner said in her autobiography she majored in public speaking,[17] while other sources said she majored in drama[18] or education.[19] While in college, Radner did weather reports atWCBN, the university's radio station.[20] According to her friendDavid Saltman in his bookGilda: An Intimate Portrait, she would report on the weather in humorous ways, such as imitating a radio static.[21] She also took part in theater productions both on and off campus.[22]
In 1969, Radner dropped out of university to follow her boyfriend, Canadian sculptorJeffrey Rubinoff, toToronto.[23][24] Radner was quoted in 1973 as saying that Toronto was "the answer to my dreams. It's a young city, open to new ideas and there are incredible opportunities for creative people."[25] Initially, she intended to be a stay at home wife to Rubinoff, but Radner grew depressed, as she felt she wasn't able to perform like she wanted to, and was reduced to little more than helping prepare Rubinoff's art shows.[26] Her friend David Saltman recalled that she would call him, complaining that she and Rubinoff would fight all the time.[27] Eventually Radner left Rubinoff but remained in Toronto.[28] During this time, she took classes at theUniversity of Toronto and the University of Wisconsin's correspondence school to complete her degree.[26]
Shortly after her break-up, Radner went to see a show at a theatre and decided to pursue acting. She worked at the theatre doing children's plays and also did pantomime performances at elementary schools across Toronto.[28] Radner made her professional acting debut in the 1972 production ofGodspell, with future starsEugene Levy,Andrea Martin,Victor Garber,Martin Short, andPaul Shaffer.[29] In 1973, Radner joinedThe Second City comedy troupe in Toronto and appeared in various productions there alongside comedians such asDan Aykroyd,John Candy,Joe Flaherty andCatherine O'Hara.[30]
She had one line of dialogue as a Buddhist group member in the 1973 filmThe Last Detail, starringJack Nicholson and also appeared on various children's shows onCBC.[31] Radner would also appear inThe National Lampoon Radio Hour and theoff-Broadway production ofThe National Lampoon Show.[32]
Radner gained wide recognition in 1975 as one of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," the freshman cast of the first season ofSaturday Night Live. She was the first performer to be cast in the show,[8] choosing the show over doingThe David Steinberg Show in Canada.[33][34][35]
Radner co-wrote much of the material that she performed and collaborated with writerAlan Zweibel on the development of sketches that featured her recurring characters.[36] Some of Radner's characters included:
Additionally Radner parodied various celebrities such asLucille Ball,Patti Smith, andOlga Korbut.[20][43][44][45] Radner was nominated for anEmmy Award for "Outstanding Continuing Or Single Performance By A Supporting Actress In Variety Or Music" in 1977, and won in 1978.[46]
In 1979, the new president and CEO of NBC,Fred Silverman, offered Radner a primetime variety show on the network, but she turned down the offer, not wanting to add another five years to her contract and not wanting to leaveSNL.[23][35] On January 9, 1979, she was a co-host of theMusic for UNICEF Concert at theUnited Nations General Assembly.[47] Radner also gave the commencement address, in character as Roseanne Roseannadanna, to the 1979 graduating class at theColumbia School of Journalism.[48]
Radner reportedly expressed mixed emotions about being recognized and approached in public by fans and other strangers.SNL historians Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad said she became "angry when she was approached, and upset when she wasn't".[49]
In 1979, Radner appeared onBroadway in a successful one-woman show,Gilda Radner – Live from New York.[50] Produced by Lorne Michaels, the show featured material that was racier than NBC censors would allow onSaturday Night Live, such as the song "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals." The same year, shortly before Radner's final season onSaturday Night Live, her Broadway show was filmed by directorMike Nichols and released with the titleGilda Live. It co-starredPaul Shaffer andDon Novello, and screened in theaters nationwide in 1980, but was a box-office flop. A soundtrack album was also commercially unsuccessful.
In 1980, Radner's contract withSNL expired[51] and she left the show, along with Lorne Michaels and the rest of the cast.[52] After leaving, Radner pursued new acting opportunities.[51]
Radner's first film after leaving the show was 1980'sFirst Family, withBob Newhart andMadeline Kahn, in which Radner played the sexually frustrated daughter of thePresident of the United States.[11] The film was unsuccessful.[53] In 1982, she appeared in theSidney Poitier directed filmHanky Panky, alongside her future husbandGene Wilder. Subsequently, she would appear in two more films with Wilder, 1984'sThe Woman in Red, and 1986'sHaunted Honeymoon. The three films were not particularly successful, thoughThe Woman in Red performed adequately at the box office, and had theAcademy Award winning song "I Just Called to Say I Love You" byStevie Wonder.[54] In her autobiography, Radner describedHanky Panky as "not-too-successful,"[55]The Woman in Red as "a nice enough success,"[56] andHaunted Honeymoon as "a bomb....a box-office disaster."[57]
Radner'sSNL castmate Laraine Newman said in a 2018 interview that she believed Radner's movie career had turned out to be mostly disappointing.[58] According to Newman, this was because Hollywood directors and producers did not know how to cast Radner in roles where her comedic talents could best shine. "The specific nature of her talent was she did characters, and she would probably have been better served if she had taken part in writing the things that she did," Newman asserted. "But I don't think it occurred to her. If she and Alan Zweibel had collaborated on a feature, it might have been a whole different thing."[58]
Outside of film, Radner continued to work in different mediums. In 1980, she began appearing withSam Waterston in theJean Kerr playLunch Hour. They played two people whose spouses are having an affair, and who, in retaliation, begin an affair of their own consisting of lunch-hour trysts.[59] The show ran for more than seven months, playing in various US theaters, including theJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts inWashington, D.C.[60][61]The Washington Post's Judith Martin andUPI's Glenne Curie praised Radner's performance as a highlight of the show, whileNew York Daily News' Douglas Watt andThe Boston Globe's Kevin Kelly were more critical of her performance.[61][62][63][64]
In 1983, Radner, along with Alan Zweibel, wroteRoseanne Roseannadanna's "Hey Get Back to Work!" Book.[65] She continued to work on television, as well. In 1984, Radner appeared on an episode of Lorne Michaels'The New Show, a sketch comedy show featuringValri Bromfield,John Candy, andDave Thomas among others.[66]
After breaking up with Jeffrey Rubinoff, Radner had an on-again-off-again relationship withMartin Short while both were appearing inGodspell. Radner had romantic involvements with severalSaturday Night Live castmates, includingBill Murray (after a previous romance with his brotherBrian Doyle-Murray) andDan Aykroyd. Radner's friend Judy Levy recounted Radner saying she foundGhostbusters hard to watch since the cast included so many of her ex-boyfriends: Aykroyd, Murray, andHarold Ramis.[67] Radner was married to musicianG. E. Smith from 1980 to 1982; they met while working on her Broadway show.[68] The two lived inThe Dakota building inManhattan.[69] After theshooting ofJohn Lennon in 1980 and the death ofJohn Belushi in 1982, Radner moved toStamford, Connecticut.[70]
Radner met actorGene Wilder on the set ofHanky Panky, when the two worked together on the production of the film. She described their first meeting as "love at first sight".[23] After she met Wilder, her marriage to Smith deteriorated. Radner made a second film with Wilder,The Woman in Red (released in 1984), and their relationship deepened. The two were married on September 18, 1984, inSaint-Tropez.[23] They made a third film together,Haunted Honeymoon, in 1986[23] and remained married until her death in 1989. She discovered that she was pregnant during the filming ofHaunted Honeymoon, but miscarried due to an ectopic pregnancy.
Details of Radner's eating disorder were reported in a book aboutSaturday Night Live by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad,[49] which was published and received much media coverage during a period when Radner was consulting various doctors in Los Angeles about symptoms of an illness she was suffering that turned out to be cancer.
In 1985, while she was on the set ofHaunted Honeymoon in the United Kingdom, Radner began to feel severe fatigue, and she also began to feel severe pain in her upper legs. She sought medical treatment, and for a period of 10 months, various doctors, most of them in Los Angeles, gave her several diagnoses, but all of them turned out to be wrong; meanwhile, she continued to feel pain.[23]
During those 10 months, she also faced hardships such as the publication of Hill and Weingrad's highly publicized book aboutSaturday Night Live, which contained many details about her eating disorder[49][23] as well as the financial failure ofHaunted Honeymoon, which had only grossed $8,000,000 in the United States, entering the box-office-returns ranking at number 8, then slipping to 14 the following week.
Finally, on October 21, 1986, Radner was diagnosed withstage IVovarian cancer.[23][71] She immediately underwent surgery and had a hysterectomy.[71] On October 26, surgeons removed a grapefruit-size tumor from her abdomen. Radner then beganchemotherapy andradiation therapy treatment, as she wrote inIt's Always Something, and the treatment caused extreme physical and emotional pain.[23]
After her diagnosis, theNational Enquirer ran the headline "Gilda Radner In Life-Death Struggle" in its following issue. Without asking for her comment,[23] the editors of the publication asserted that she was dying. Radner wrote inIt's Always Something:
They found an old photo of me looking frightened from a 'Saturday Night Live' sketch and blew that up to make the point. What they did probably sold newspapers, but it had a devastating effect on my family and my friends. It forced Gene [Wilder] to compose a press release to respond. He said that I had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, had surgery, and my prognosis was good. TheEnquirer doesn't like good news, so the Gilda Radner story stopped running.[23]
Radner saw herSaturday Night Live castmates for the last time at Laraine Newman's 36th birthday party in March 1988.[72]
After Radner was told that she had gone intoremission, she wrote the bookIt's Always Something (a catchphrase of her characterRoseanne Roseannadanna),[23] which included details of her struggle with the illness.Life did a March 1988 cover story on her illness, titled "Gilda Radner's Answer to Cancer: Healing the Body with Mind and Heart."
Wanting to return to television, Radnerguest-starred onIt's Garry Shandling's Show on March 18, 1988, unannounced, mentioning on-camera that a cancer diagnosis and treatment explained the long hiatus in her entertainment career. According to Alan Zweibel, Radner had been nervous about appearing on the show, worrying that she had been out of the spotlight so long that no one would remember her. When she appeared on camera, she received a loud round of applause. It would be her final TV appearance.[73][74] After the appearance, HBO presidentMichael Fuchs discussed the possibility of giving Radner a new show created by Zweibel and Shandling.[74]
Radner was scheduled to host an episode ofSaturday Night Livein the spring of 1988, which would have made her the first female former cast member to host the show, but thewriters' strike forced production to shut down before the end of the season.[75]
In September 1988, after tests showed no signs of cancer, Radner went on amaintenance chemotherapy treatment to prolong her remission, but three months later, in December, she learned that the cancer had returned.[71]
On May 17, 1989, she was admitted toCedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to undergo aCT scan. She was given a sedative and lapsed into a coma during the scan.[76] She did not regain consciousness and died three days later, on May 20, 1989; Wilder was at her side. The cause of death wasovarian cancer.[8]
News of Radner's death broke asSteve Martin was rehearsing for his guest-host role on that night's season finale ofSaturday Night Live. The show's performers and crew, includingLorne Michaels,Phil Hartman, andMike Myers (who said he had "fallen in love" with Radner after playing her son in aBC Hydro commercial on Canadian television and considered her the reason he wanted to be onSNL),[77] had been unaware of the severity of Radner's condition.
Martin abandoned his opening monologue, and he tearfully introduced a video clip of a 1978 sketch in which he and Radner had parodiedFred Astaire andCyd Charisse in the dance routine "Dancing in the Dark" fromThe Band Wagon (1953).[78][79] After the clip, Martin said it reminded him of "how great she was, and of how young I looked. Gilda, we miss you."[80][81]G. E. Smith, Radner's first husband, who wasSaturday Night Live's bandleader, wore ablack armband throughout the episode.
Radner is interred at Long Ridge Union Cemetery inStamford, Connecticut.[82]
In her 2012 book,We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy, Yael Kohen wrote, "Of the three female [SNL] cast members, Gilda Radner made the deepest impact. There is hardly a female sketch comic today who does not claim Radner as an inspiration for her comedy career."[83][84]
InRolling Stone's February 2015 appraisal of all 141SNL cast members to date, Radner was ranked ninth in importance. "[Radner was] the most beloved of the original cast," they wrote. "In the years between Mary Tyler Moore andSeinfeld's Elaine, Radner was the prototype for the brainy city girl with a bundle of neuroses."[85]
Writers and comedians who have cited Radner as an influence includeLena Dunham,Melissa McCarthy,Amy Poehler, andMaya Rudolph. At the premiere for the documentary filmLove, Gilda,Tina Fey said, "She was our equivalent toMichelle Obama. She was so lovely and she was so authentically herself and so regular in so many ways … We all saw that and said: 'I wanna do that.'"[86]
Radner's death helped raise awareness of the early detection of ovarian cancer and the connection to familial epidemiology.[87] The media attention in the two years after Radner's death led to the registry of 450 families with familial ovarian cancer at the Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry, a research database registry atRoswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center inBuffalo, New York. The registry was renamed the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry (GRFOCR) in 1990 and renamed the Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry in 2013.[88] In 1996, Wilder and Registry founder Steven Piver, one of Radner's medical consultants, publishedGilda's Disease: Sharing Personal Experiences and a Medical Perspective on Ovarian Cancer.[89]
Wilder established the Gilda Radner Hereditary Cancer Program atCedars-Sinai to screen high-risk candidates (such as women ofAshkenazi Jewish descent) and to run basic diagnostic tests. He testified before a Congressional committee that Radner's condition had been misdiagnosed and that if doctors had inquired more deeply into her family background, they would have learned that her grandmother, aunt, and a cousin had all died of ovarian cancer, and therefore they might have attacked the disease earlier.[90]
In 1991,Gilda's Club, a network of affiliated clubhouses where people living with cancer, their friends, and families, can meet to learn how to live with cancer, was founded by Joanna Bull, Radner's cancerpsychotherapist, along with Radner's widower,Gene Wilder (also a cancer survivor) and broadcasterJoel Siegel (who would die in 2007 following a long battle with colon cancer). The first club opened in New York City in 1995. The organization took its name from Radner's comment that cancer gave her "membership to an elite club I'd rather not belong to".[91]
Many Gilda's Clubs have opened across the United States and in Canada. In July 2009, Gilda's Club Worldwide merged withThe Wellness Community, another established cancer support organization, to become the Cancer Support Community (CSC).[92][93][94] As of 2012, more than 20 local affiliates of Gilda's Club were active. Although some local affiliates of Gilda's Club and The Wellness Community have retained their names, many affiliates have adopted the name Cancer Support Community following the merger.[76]
On September 26, 1992, much of the original cast ofGodspell reunited for a one-night performance of the show as a tribute to Radner and to raise money for the Genesis Research Foundation, which specialized in ovarian cancer research.[95][96]
In 1997,Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner: A Sort of Romantic Comedy,Alan Zweibel's play about his friendship with Radner (based on his memoir with the same name) ran for 73 performances at New York'soff-BroadwayLucille Lortel Theatre.Paula Cale played Gilda,Bruno Kirby played Zwiebel, and all the other roles (more than twenty) were played byAlan Tudyk in his New York stage debut (a feat for which he won theClarence Derwent Award).[97][98]
In 2002,ABC dedicated a three-hour block of programming to Radner. The evening kicked off with a one-hour special,Gilda Radner's Greatest Moments. Hosted bySaturday Night Live alumnusMolly Shannon, the special featured highlights from her career and appearances by stars and friends includingVictor Garber,Eugene Levy,Steve Martin,Paul Shaffer,Lily Tomlin, andBarbara Walters. It was followed by a television movie about her life:Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, starringJami Gertz as Radner.[99][100]
In 2007, Radner was featured inMaking Trouble, a film tribute to female Jewish comedians produced by theJewish Women's Archive.[101]
In 2015, for theSaturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, Radner was honored with other deceased cast and crew members over the show's history.[102] Additionally, during theWeekend Update segment,Emma Stone played Roseanne Roseannadanna as a tribute to Radner.[103]
Ella Hunt portrays Radner in the 2024 filmSaturday Night.[104] In 2025, for SNL's 50th anniversary, her co-stars Newman andJane Curtin held up a photograph of her during the "farewell" segment of the show.[105]
Jordan Kai Burnett portrayed Radner in 2024 and 2025 productions ofGene & Gilda, a play by Cary Gitter about Radner's years with Gene Wilder.[106][107]
Radner was nominated for anEmmy Award for "Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music" three times between 1977 and 1979 for her work onSaturday Night Live, winning in1978.[46] She posthumously won aGrammy Award for "Best Spoken Word Or Non-Musical Recording" in 1990.[108] In 1992, Radner was posthumously inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Fame for her achievements in arts and entertainment.[109]
Producer/actor James Tumminia spearheaded a campaign to dedicate a posthumous star on theHollywood Walk of Fame to Radner.[110] On June 27, 2003, Radner received her star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 6801 Hollywood Blvd.[111]Saturday Night Live alumnaMolly Shannon (and the host of the ABC special) served as Master of Ceremonies at the induction ceremony at whichLaraine Newman, Gilda's Club founder Joanna Bull, and Radner's brother, Michael F. Radner, presented the honor.
Parts of WestHouston Street in New York City, Lombard Street in Toronto, and Chester Avenue in White Plains, New York, have been renamed "Gilda Radner Way". The private road off Kirk Road inWarminster Township, Pennsylvania, leading to the Cancer Support Community Greater Philadelphia (formerly Gilda's Club Delaware Valley) is also thusly named.
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music | Saturday Night Live | Nominated |
| 1978 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music | Saturday Night Live | Won |
| 1988 | Emmy Award | Outstanding Guest Performer In A Comedy Series | It's Garry Shandling's Show | Nominated |
| 1990 | Grammy Award | Best Spoken Word or Non-musical Recording | It's Always Something | Won |
| 1992 | Michigan Women's Hall of Fame | Entertainer | Won | |
| 2003 | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Television | Won |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | The Last Detail | Nichiren Shōshū Member | |
| 1979 | Mr. Mike's Mondo Video | Herself | |
| 1980 | Gilda Live | Herself / Various Characters | Also writer |
| 1980 | First Family | Gloria Link | |
| 1982 | Hanky Panky | Kate Hellman | |
| 1982 | It Came from Hollywood | Herself | |
| 1984 | The Woman in Red | Ms. Milner | |
| 1985 | Movers & Shakers | Livia Machado | |
| 1986 | Haunted Honeymoon | Vickie Pearle | |
| 2018 | Love, Gilda | Herself | Documentary (archive footage) |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Jack: A Flash Fantasy | Jill of Hearts | |
| 1974 | The Gift of Winter | Nicely / Malicious / Narrator | Voice |
| 1974–1975 | Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins | — | Voice |
| 1975–1980 | Saturday Night Live | Various characters | 107 episodes; also writer |
| 1978 | The Muppet Show | Herself | 1 episode |
| 1978 | Witch's Night Out | Witch | Voice |
| 1978 | All You Need Is Cash | Mrs. Emily Pules | Television film, cameo |
| 1979 | Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda | Herself | |
| 1980 | Animalympics | Barbara Warbler / Brenda Springer / Coralee Perrier / Tatiana Tushenko / Doree Turnell / The Contessa | Television film, Voice |
| 1985 | Reading Rainbow | Herself | Voice only; 1 episode |
| 1988 | It's Garry Shandling's Show | Herself | 1 episode, final appearance |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
