Norm Macdonald obit

Norm Macdonald, ‘SNL’ star, dead at 61

 

He was not on the list.

Norm Macdonald, the deadpan stand-up comic and beloved “Saturday Night Live” star from 1993 to 1998, has died after a private nine-year battle with cancer. He was 61.

The former “Weekend Update” anchor’s passing was confirmed to The Post by his manager Marc Gurvitz, of Brillstein Entertainment.

The Quebec City native’s friend Lori Jo Hoekstra, who was with Macdonald when he died, said the performer fought cancer hard — but was determined to keep his struggle away from family, friends and fans.

“He was most proud of his comedy,” Hoekstra, who was also his longtime producing partner, told Deadline in a statement. “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.”

When he published his “memoir” in 2015, Macdonald revealed what percentage of it was true in his signature deadpan style: “Oh, zero,” he told The Post. “I wanted to write a novel, but they wouldn’t let me. But there are facts in the book that are true, [like] ‘a river is made of water.’ “

Macdonald, who never graduated from high school, told The Post “the scariest [part about writing a book] is I have no education and so I really feel like to be a good writer, you need education.”

He admitted at the time, “I would really like to go to school. I never got the chance. I’ve never worked so hard. It was very hard for me to keep a whole book in my head. I could keep a sketch in my head or even a movie … but a book. It’s so hard to keep that whole thing at once in your head.”

Macdonald launched his show business career in the comedy clubs of his native Canada, where he perfected his signature laconic style, and went on to compete on the early reality TV competition series “Star Search” in 1990. He was in the infamous writers room for fellow stand-up Roseanne Barr’s hit sitcom “Roseanne” during the 1992-93 season — before scoring his coveted gig on Lorne Michaels’ iconic NBC sketch comedy series.

After exiting “SNL” — and being replaced as “Weekend Update” anchor by Colin Quinn — in 1998, Macdonald starred in his own sitcom, “The Norm Show.” He starred as social worker Norm Henderson, a former NHL player who was banned from the sport for life thanks to gambling and tax evasion. The show ran for three seasons from 1999 to 2001.

After appearances in films such as “Billy Madison” and “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” he hosted a one-season talk show — with the appropriately dry title “Norm Macdonald Has a Show” — for one season on Netflix in 2018.

He told The Post at the time: “I’m an old man. I’m just an old chunk of coal. I don’t even know how to use my phone.”

n 2006, Macdonald again performed as a voice actor, this time in a series of commercials for the Canadian mobile-services provider Bell Mobility, as the voice of Frank the Beaver. The campaign was extended through 2008 to promote offerings from other Bell Canada divisions such as the Internet provider Bell Sympatico and the satellite service Bell Satellite TV. In September 2006, Macdonald's sketch comedy album Ridiculous was released by Comedy Central Records. It features appearances by Will Ferrell, Jon Lovitz, Tim Meadows, Molly Shannon and Artie Lange. On the comedy website Super Deluxe, he created an animated series entitled The Fake News. Macdonald has filled in during Dennis Miller's weekly "Miller Time" segment on O'Reilly Factor, and guest-hosted Miller's radio show, on which he was briefly a weekly contributor.

Macdonald was a guest character on My Name Is Earl in the episode "Two Balls, Two Strikes" (2007) as Lil Chubby, the son of "Chubby" (played by Burt Reynolds), similar to Macdonald's portrayals of Reynolds on SNL. On June 19, 2008, Macdonald was a celebrity panelist on two episodes of a revived version of the game show Match Game. On August 17, 2008, Macdonald was a participant in the Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget, performing intentionally cheesy and G-rated material that contrasted greatly with the raunchy performances of the other roasters.[citation needed] In AT&T commercials around Christmas 2007 and 2008, Macdonald voiced a gingerbread boy in a commercial for AT&T's GoPhone.

In 2009, Macdonald and Sam Simon pitched a fake reality show to FX called The Norm Macdonald Reality Show where Macdonald would play a fictional, down-on-his-luck version of himself. The show was picked up and Garry Shandling was added to the cast, but was cancelled halfway through filming. On the May 16, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live, Macdonald reappeared as Burt Reynolds on Celebrity Jeopardy!, and in another sketch. On May 31, 2009, he appeared on Million Dollar Password.

Macdonald said his influences included Bob Newhart, Leo Tolstoy, Bob Hope, Sam Kinison, and Dennis Miller.

Speaking about Canada's homegrown comedy industry, Macdonald reflected that he would have liked there to have been more opportunity for him to stay in the country early in his career.

n 2014, Macdonald unsuccessfully campaigned on Twitter to be named the new host of The Late Late Show after then-host Craig Ferguson announced he would be leaving. On May 15, 2015, Macdonald was the final stand-up act on the Late Show with David Letterman: during his set, which ended with him breaking into tears as he told Letterman that he truly loved him, Macdonald included a joke Letterman had told the first time Macdonald had ever seen him, during a 1970s appearance on the Canadian talk show 90 Minutes Live, where a 13-year-old Macdonald had been in the studio audience. Also in 2015, Macdonald was a judge for the ninth season of NBC's Last Comic Standing, joining the previous season's judges, Roseanne Barr and Keenan Ivory Wayans and replacing fellow Canadian Russell Peters from 2014.

In August 2015, he succeeded Darrell Hammond as Colonel Sanders in TV commercials for the KFC chain of fast food restaurants. Macdonald was replaced by Jim Gaffigan in the role by February 2016."

In September 2016, Macdonald's semi-fictional memoir Based on a True Story was published by Random House imprint Spiegel & Grau. It debuted at number 15 on the New York Times Best Sellers list for hardcover nonfiction, and made number 6 on the Best Sellers list for humor.

As of May 2017, Macdonald has continued to evolve in his stand-up, moving toward a more reserved, deadpan style. On stage he has claimed to have "no opinions" and the minimalist delivery has been described by The A.V. Club as "reduc[ing] gesture and verbiage down to an absurd minimum."

In March 2018, Netflix announced it had ordered 10 episodes of a new talk show entitled Norm Macdonald Has a Show, to be hosted by Macdonald. The series premiered on September 14, 2018.

In September 2018, Macdonald sparked controversy after the publication of an interview in which he appeared to criticize aspects of the #MeToo movement and defend friends and fellow comedians Louis C.K. and Roseanne Barr. Macdonald's scheduled appearance on NBC's Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon was subsequently canceled.

In February 2020, Macdonald launched Loko, a dating app he co-created which relies heavily on video to make first impressions.

On May 25, 2020, Adam Eget said on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience that he and Macdonald had plans to bring back the podcast by the end of the year

Works

Comedy

Year       Title       Notes

2006      Ridiculous            sketch album

2011      Me Doing Stand-Up         stand-up special

2017      Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Trickery    stand-up special

TV series

Year       Title       Notes

1999-2001          The Norm Show                3 seasons, 54 episodes, with Bruce Helford

2003      A Minute with Stan Hooper         1 season, 7 episodes, with Barry Kemp

Literature

Year       Title       Notes

2016      Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir      non-fiction

Talk shows

Year       Title       Notes

2011      Sports Show with Norm Macdonald         9 episodes, with Mike Gibbons, Lori Jo Hoekstra, and Daniel Kellison

2013–2017          Norm Macdonald Live    3 seasons, 36 episodes

2018      Norm Macdonald Has a Show     10 episodes

2020      Quarantined       5 episodes

As performer

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1995      Billy Madison     Frank    

1996      The People vs. Larry Flynt             Network Reporter          

1998      Dirty Work          Mitch Weaver    Also writer

Dr. Dolittle          Lucky     Voice

1999      Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo        Bartender            Uncredited cameo

Man on the Moon            Michael Richards             

2000      Screwed               Willard Fillmore               

2001      The Animal         Mob Member    Cameo

Dr. Dolittle 2       Lucky     Voice

2005      Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo               Earl McManus   Uncredited cameo

2006      Farce of the Penguins     Join Twosomes Penguin                Voice

Dr. Dolittle 3       Lucky     Voice

2007      Senior Skip Day Mr. Rigetti[74]  

Christmas Is Here Again                 Buster the Fox   Voice

2008      Dr. Dolittle: Tail to the Chief        Lucky     Voice (uncredited)

The Flight Before Christmas         Julius     Voice

2009      Funny People     Himself                 Cameo

Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts                Lucky     Voice

2010      Grown Ups          Geezer Cameo

Hollywood & Wine          Sid Blaustein     

2011      Jack & Jill             Funbucket           Cameo

2012      The Adventures of Panda Warrior             King Leo               Voice

Vampire Dog      Fang      Voice

The Outback       Quint     Voice

2014      The 7th Dwarf    Burner the Dragon           Voice

2015      The Ridiculous Six            Nugget Customer             Cameo

2017      Treasure Hounds              Skipper                 Voice

2019      Klaus     Mogens                Voice

Television

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1990      Star Search         Himself                 Stand-up comedy competitor

1991      One Night Stand               Himself                 Stand-up special

1992      The Dennis Miller Show                                 Writer

1992–1993          Roseanne                            Writer and story editor

1993      The Jackie Thomas Show               Jordan   Episode: "Strike"

1993–1999          Saturday Night Live         Various roles, Host          98 episodes; also writer

1995      The Larry Sanders Show                Himself                 Episode: "Hank's Sex Tape"

1996, 2000          The Drew Carey Show    Simon Tate / Himself      2 episodes

1997      NewsRadio         Roger Edwards Episode: "The Injury"

1999–2001          The Norm Show                Norm Henderson             54 episodes; also producer

2000, 2017          Family Guy          Death / Himself                 Voice (uncredited)

Episode: "Death Is a Bitch" and Episode: "Don't Be a Dickens at Christmas"

2003      A Minute with Stan Hooper         Stan Hooper       7 episodes; also executive producer

2004      Oliver Beene      Hobo Bob            Episode: "Girly Dad"

2005      The Fairly OddParents    Norm The Genie               Voice

2 episodes

Back to Norm     Various roles      Television special; also writer and producer

2007–2009          My Name Is Earl                Little Chubby     2 episodes

2008      The Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget Himself                 Television special

2010–2018          The Middle         Orville "Rusty" Heck        10 episodes

2011      High Stakes Poker            Himself (host)    Season 7

2014–2020          Mike Tyson Mysteries    Pigeon Voice

49 episodes

2015      Real Rob              Himself                 Episode: "The Penis Episode Part 1"

Last Comic Standing        Himself (judge) 8 episodes

Sunnyside           Hole       12 episodes

2016      4th Canadian Screen Awards       Himself (host)    Television special

2016–2019          Skylanders Academy       Glumshanks       Voice

Main role

2017      Girlboss                Rick        4 episodes

2017–2021          The Orville          Yaphit   Voice

Recurring role

2018      Roseanne                            Consulting producer