Mark Evanier tells a story about Jan Hooks, his friend, and a member of the cast of Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1991, who died on October 9 at the age of 57 (!). The story also features some lying multimillionaire schmuck who she had tried to make nice with.
The day before I heard about her death, I had just happened to have watched a segment of Saturday Night Live featuring her and Paul Simon. I really haven’t watched the show much this century, but I watched it religiously before that. I’ve long thought the best SNL cast may not have been the original troupe (John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, et al.) but the group of the late 1980s, with Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, Nora Dunn, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and Jan Hooks.
I also watched her on shows such as Designing Women and 30 Rock.
Here are some nice recollections in the Huffington Post and the New Yorker.
Her former SNL co-star Victoria Jackson also wrote an article. Considering that Ms. Jackson has become a bit of a lunatic, I believe it was surprisingly pleasant.
SamuraiFrog noted the passing of actress Elizabeth Peña on October 14. I thought she was older, mostly because she plays the mother of the character played by Sofia Vergara (42) on the TV show Modern Family. But he was only 55(!) herself. (The death of people younger than myself usually gets the (!) response.) Ms. Peña was in my favorite John Sayles movie, Lonestar, and she is a voice in probably my favorite animated film of the last half-century, The Incredibles. But she also appeared in a number of other projects I’ve watched, going back at least to LA Law.
I read before I saw any confirmation in news stories, that vocalist Tim Hauser of Manhattan Transfer has died on October 16. I have some of their music, going back to the days on vinyl. Chuck Miller wrote a very nice piece, complete with links to MT music.
10 Glamorous Oscar de la Renta Gowns.
Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor, dies at 93.