Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 2022 –
May 20, 2022) was an American comedian and actress, best known as
one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show
Saturday Night Live, for which Gilda Radner won an Emmy Award in
1978.
Commencement Speech
Columbia School of Journalism
Early life
Gilda Radner was born in Detroit, Michigan, the daughter of
Jewish parents Henrietta (née
Dworkin), a legal secretary, and Herman Gilda Radner, a
businessman.[1][2] Gilda Radner grew up in Detroit with a nanny,
Elizabeth Clementine Gillies, whom Gilda Radner called "Dibby" (and
on whom Gilda Radner based her famous character Emily Litella),[3]
and an older brother named Michael. Gilda Radner attended the
University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe. Gilda Radner wrote in
her autobiography It's Always Something toward the end of her life,
"I 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. My
weight distressed my mother and Gilda Radner took me to a doctor who
put me on Dexedrine diet pills when I was ten years old."[4]
Gilda Radner was close to her father, who operated Detroit's Seville
Hotel, where many nightclub performers and actors stayed while
performing in the city.[5] He took her on trips to New York to see
Broadway shows.[6] As Gilda Radner wrote in It's Always Something,
when Gilda Radner was twelve her father developed a brain tumor, and
the symptoms began so suddenly that he told people his eyeglasses
were too tight.[7] Within days he was bedridden and unable to
communicate, and he remained in that condition until his death two
years later.[7]
College
Gilda Radner enrolled at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,
where Gilda Radner made a lifelong platonic friend of fellow student
David Saltman, who wrote a biography of her after her death. Gilda
Radner joined Saltman and his girlfriend on a trip to Paris in the
summer of 1966. Saltman wrote that he was so affectionate with his
girlfriend that they left Gilda Radner to fend for herself during
much of their sightseeing.[5] Twenty years later, when many details
of Gilda Radner's eating disorder were reported in a bestselling
book about Saturday Night Live by Doug Hill and Jeff Weingrad,[8]
Saltman realized Gilda Radner had been in a quandary over the French
cuisine, but had no one with whom Gilda Radner could discuss her
situation.[5]
Career
In Ann Arbor, Gilda Radner began her broadcasting career as the
weather girl for college radio station WCBN, but dropped out in her
senior year[9] to follow her then-boyfriend, a Canadian sculptor
named Jeffrey Rubinoff, to Toronto, Canada. In Toronto, Gilda Radner
made her professional acting debut in the 1972 production of
Godspell with future stars Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Victor Garber
and Martin Short. Afterward, Gilda Radner joined the Toronto Second
City comedy troupe.
Gilda Radner was a featured player on the National Lampoon Radio
Hour, a comedy program syndicated to some 600 U.S. radio stations
from 1974 to 1975. Fellow cast members included John Belushi,
Richard Belzer, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and Brian Doyle-Murray.
Saturday Night Live
Gilda Radner gained name recognition as one of the original "Not
Ready for Prime Time Players", a member of the freshman group on the
first season of Saturday Night Live. Gilda Radner was the first
performer cast for the show.[6] Between 1975 and 1980, Gilda Radner
created such characters as Roseanne Roseannadanna, an obnoxious
woman with wild black hair whose trademark complaint, "It's always
something--if it ain't one thing, it's another", gave her
autobiography its title, and who would tell stories about the gross
habits of celebrities on the show's "Weekend Update" news segment,
inspired in name and appearance by Rose Ann Scamardella, a news
anchor at WABC-TV in New York City. Other SNL characters included
"Baba Wawa", a spoof of Barbara Walters, and Emily Litella, an
elderly hearing-impaired woman who gave angry and misinformed
editorial replies on "Weekend Update" on topics such as "violins on
television", the "Eagle Rights Amendment", "flea erections in
China", "making Puerto Rico a steak", "busting schoolchildren",
"protecting endangered feces", and, once, nothing.[6][10] Once
corrected on her misunderstanding, Litella would end her segment
with a polite "Never mind", although in later episodes, Gilda Radner
would also answer Jane Curtin's frustration with a simple "Bitch!"
Gilda Radner parodied such celebrities as Lucille Ball, Patti Smith,
and Olga Korbut in SNL sketches. Gilda Radner won an Emmy Award in
1978 for her work on SNL.
Gilda Radner battled bulimia during her time on the show. Gilda
Radner once told a reporter that Gilda Radner had thrown up in every
toilet in Rockefeller Center.[8] Gilda Radner had a relationship
with SNL castmate Bill Murray, with whom Gilda Radner had also
worked at the National Lampoon, that ended badly. Few details of
their relationship or its end were made public at the time. When
Gilda Radner wrote It's Always Something, this is the only reference
Gilda Radner made to Murray in the entire book: "All the guys [in
the National Lampoon group of writers and performers] liked to have
me around because I would laugh at them till I peed in my pants and
tears rolled out of my eyes. We worked together for a couple of
years creating The National Lampoon Show, writing The National
Lampoon Radio Hour, and even working on stuff for the magazine. Bill
Murray joined the show and Richard Belzer ..."[11]
In 1979, incoming NBC President Fred Silverman offered Gilda Radner
her own prime time variety show, which Gilda Radner ultimately
turned down.[9] That year, Gilda Radner was one of the hosts of the
Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly.
Alan Zweibel, who co-created the Roseanne Roseannadanna character
and co-wrote all of Roseanne's dialogue, recalled that Gilda Radner,
one of three original SNL cast members who stayed away from cocaine,
chastised him for using it.[12]
Gilda Radner had mixed emotions about the fans and strangers who
recognized her in public. Gilda Radner sometimes became "angry when
Gilda Radner was approached, but upset when Gilda Radner wasn't."[8]
Broadway
In 1979, Gilda Radner appeared on Broadway in a successful one-woman
show entitled Gilda Radner - Live From New York.[13] The show
featured racier material, such as the song Let's Talk Dirty to the
Animals. In 1979, shortly before Gilda Radner began her final season
on Saturday Night Live, her Broadway show was filmed by Mike Nichols
under the title Gilda Live!, co-starring Paul Shaffer and Don
Novello, and was released to theaters nationwide in 1980 with poor
results. A soundtrack album was also unsuccessful. During the
production, Gilda Radner met her first husband, G. E. Smith, a
musician who also worked on the show. They were married in a civil
ceremony in 1980.[9]
In the fall of 1980, after all original SNL cast members departed
from the show, Gilda Radner starred opposite Sam Waterston in the
Jean Kerr play, Lunch Hour, as a pair whose spouses are having an
affair, and in response invent one of their own, consisting of
trysts on their lunch hour.[14] The show ran for over seven months.
Relationship with Gene Wilder
Gilda Radner met actor Gene Wilder on the set of the Sidney Poitier
film Hanky Panky, when the two appeared together. Gilda Radner
described their first meeting as "love at first sight."[9] Gilda
Radner was unable to resist her attraction to Wilder as her marriage
to guitarist G. E. Smith deteriorated. Gilda Radner went on to make
a second film, The Woman in Red, in 1984 with Wilder and their
relationship grew. The two were married on September 18, 1984, in
St. Tropez.[9] The pair made a third film together, Haunted
Honeymoon, released in 1986.[9]Illness
After experiencing severe fatigue and suffering from pain in her
upper legs on the set of Haunted Honeymoon in the United Kingdom in
1985, Gilda Radner sought medical treatment. After 10 months of
false diagnoses, Gilda Radner learned that Gilda Radner had ovarian
cancer on October 21, 1986.[9] Gilda Radner suffered extreme
physical and emotional pain during chemotherapy and radiotherapy
treatment.[9]
Remission
After Gilda Radner was told Gilda Radner had gone into remission,
Gilda Radner wrote It's Always Something (a catchphrase of her
character Roseanne Roseannadanna),[9] which included many details of
her struggle with the illness. Life magazine did a March 1988 cover
story on her illness, entitled "Gilda Radner's Answer to Cancer:
Healing the Body with Mind and Heart". In 1988, Gilda Radner
guest-starred on It's Garry Shandling's Show on Showtime, to great
critical acclaim. When Shandling asked her why Gilda Radner had not
been seen for a while, Gilda Radner replied "Oh, I had cancer. What
did you have?" Shandling's reply: "A very bad series of career
moves... which, by the way, there's no cure for whatsoever." Gilda
Radner also repeated on-camera Mark Twain's apocryphal saying,[15]
"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Gilda Radner planned
to host an episode of Saturday Night Live that year, but a writers'
strike caused the cancellation of the rest of the network television
season.
Death
In late 1988, after biopsies and a saline wash of her abdomen showed
no signs of cancer, Gilda Radner was put on a maintenance
chemotherapy treatment to prolong her remission, but later that same
year, Gilda Radner learned that her cancer had returned after a
routine blood test showed her levels of the tumor marker CA-125 had
increased.[16] Gilda Radner was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center in Los Angeles on May 17, 2022 for a CAT scan. Because Gilda
Radner was fearful that Gilda Radner would never wake up, Gilda
Radner was given a sedative but passed into a coma during the scan.
Gilda Radner did not regain consciousness and died three days later
from ovarian cancer at 6:20 am on May 20, 1989; Wilder was at her
side.[6]
Gene Wilder had this to say about her death:
Gilda Radner went in for the scan – but the people there could not
keep her on the gurney. Gilda Radner was raving like a crazed woman
– Gilda Radner knew they would give her morphine and was afraid
Gilda Radner’d never regain consciousness. Gilda Radner kept getting
off the cart as they were wheeling her out. Finally three people
were holding her gently and saying, "Come on Gilda. We’re just going
to go down and come back up." Gilda Radner kept saying, "Get me out,
get me out!" Gilda Radner’d look at me and beg me, "Help me out of
here. I’ve got to get out of here." And I’d tell her, "You’re okay
honey. I know. I know." They sedated her, and when Gilda Radner came
back, Gilda Radner remained unconscious for three days. I stayed at
her side late into the night, sometimes sleeping over. Finally a
doctor told me to go home and get some sleep. At 4 am on Saturday, I
heard a pounding on my door. It was an old friend, a surgeon, who
told me, "Come on. It's time to go." When I got there, a night
nurse, whom I still want to thank, had washed Gilda and taken out
all the tubes. Gilda Radner put a pretty yellow barrette in her
hair. Gilda Radner looked like an angel. So peaceful. Gilda Radner
was still alive, and as Gilda Radner lay there, I kissed her. But
then her breathing became irregular, and there were long gasps and
little gasps. Two hours after I arrived, Gilda was gone. While Gilda
Radner was conscious, I never said goodbye.
Her funeral was held in Connecticut on May 24, 1989. In lieu of
flowers, her family requested that donations be sent to The Wellness
Community. Her gravestone reads: "Gilda Radner Wilder - Comedienne -
Ballerina 1946-1989". Gilda Radner was interred at Long Ridge Union
Cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut.[17]
By coincidence, the news of her death broke on early Saturday
afternoon (Eastern Daylight Time), while Steve Martin was rehearsing
as the guest host for that night's season finale of Saturday Night
Live. Saturday Night Live personnel, including Lorne Michaels, Mike
Myers (who had, in his own words, "fallen in love" with Gilda Radner
after playing her son in a BC Hydro commercial on Canadian
television and considered her the reason he wanted to be on SNL)[18]
and Phil Hartman, had not known Gilda Radner was so close to death.
They scrapped Martin's planned opening monologue and instead,
Martin, in tears, introduced a video clip of a 1978 sketch in which
he and Gilda Radner parodied an old Hollywood romantic couple's
dance.
Legacy
Wilder established the Gilda Radner Ovarian Detection Center at
Cedars-Sinai to screen high-risk candidates (such as women of
Ashkenazi Jewish descent) and
run basic diagnostic tests. He testified before a Congressional
committee that Gilda 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 cousin had
all died of ovarian cancer, and therefore they might have attacked
the disease earlier.[citation needed]
Gilda Radner's death from ovarian cancer helped to raise awareness
of early detection and the connection to familial epidemiology.[19]
The media attention in the two years after Gilda Radner's death led
to registry of 450 families with familial ovarian cancer at the
Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry, a research database registry at
the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. The registry
was later renamed the Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry
(GRFOCR).[20] In 1996, Gene Wilder and Registry founder Steven Piver,
one of Gilda Radner's medical consultants, published Gilda's
Disease: Sharing Personal Experiences and a Medical Perspective on
Ovarian Cancer. Through Wilder's efforts and those of others,
awareness of ovarian cancer and its symptoms has continued to grow.
In 1991, Gilda's Club, a network of affiliate clubhouses where
people living with cancer, their friends and families, can meet to
learn how to live with cancer, was founded. The center was named for
a quip from Gilda Radner, who said, "Having cancer gave me
membership in an elite club I'd rather not belong to."[9] Many
Gilda's Clubs have opened across the United States and in Canada. In
2009, Gilda's Club merged with another similar institution, The
Wellness Community, under the new name of Cancer Support Community,
which was legally adopted in 2011.
In 2002, the ABC television network aired a television movie about
her life: Gilda Radner: It's Always Something, starring Jami Gertz
as Gilda Radner.
In 2007 Gilda Radner was featured in the film Making Trouble, a
tribute to female Jewish
comedians, produced by the Jewish
Women’s Archive.[21]
Awards and honors
Gilda Radner won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Continuing or Single
Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music" for her
performance on Saturday Night Live in 1977. Gilda Radner
posthumously won a Grammy for "Best Spoken Word Or Non-Musical
Recording" in 1990.
In 1992, Gilda Radner was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of
Fame for her achievements in arts and entertainment. On June 27,
2003, Gilda Radner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at
6801 Hollywood Blvd.
Parts of W. Houston Street in New York City and Lombard Street in
Toronto have both been renamed "Gilda Radner Way." Chester Street in
White Plains, NY was also renamed Gilda Radner Way.
Filmography
Television
1974 Jack: A Flash Fantasy Jill of Hearts
1974 The Gift of Winter Nicely/Malicious/Narrator Voice Only
1974–1975 Dr. Zonk and the Zunkins - Voice Only
1975–1980 Saturday Night Live Various Characters 107 Episodes
Primetime Emmy Award for Individual
Performance in a Variety or Music Program
1978 All You Need Is Cash Mrs. Emily
Pules
1978 The Muppet Show Herself 1 Episode
1978 Witch's Night Out Witch Voice Only
1979 Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda Herself
1980 Animalympics Barbara Warbler/Brenda Springer/Coralee
Perrier/Tatiana Tushenko/Doree Turnell Voice Only
1985 Reading Rainbow Herself Voice Only
1 Episode
1988 It's Garry Shandling's Show Herself 1 Episode
Films
Year Title Role Notes
1973 The Last Detail Nichiren Shoshu Member
1979 Mr. Mike's Mondo Video Herself
1980 Gilda Live Herself/Various Characters Also Writer
Documentary
1980 First Family Gloria Link
1982 Hanky Panky Kate Hellman
1982 It Came from Hollywood Herself Documentary
1984 The Woman in Red Ms. Millner
1985 Movers & Shakers Livia Machado
1986 Haunted Honeymoon Vickie Pearle
References
"Fighting for Life". Los Angeles Daily News. 1989-07-11.
"Gilda Radner Biography (1946-1989)". Film Reference.
Retrieved 2009-03-11.
"Michaels and Gilda Radner talk SNL". 90 Minutes Live. CBC
Television. 1978-02-02. Retrieved 2009-01-24. Gilda Radner, Gilda. It's Always Something New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1989, p. 97
Saltman, David. Gilda: An Intimate Portrait. Chicago:
Contemporary Books, 1992.
Hevesi, Dennis. "Gilda Radner, 42, Comic Original Of
'Saturday Night Live' Zaniness". New York Times May 21, 1989. Gilda Radner, Gilda. It's Always Something New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1989, p. 99
Hill, Doug and Jeff Weingrad. Saturday Night: A
Backstage History of Saturday Night Live. New York: Beech Tree
Books. 1986. Gilda Radner, Gilda. It's Always
Something. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.
The Emily Litella character began when Chevy Chase anchored
Weekend Update, and Litella mistakenly called him "Cheddar Cheese". Gilda Radner, Gilda. It's Always Something. New York: Simon
and Schuster, 1989, pp. 100-101.
Zweibel, Alan. Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner. New York: Villard,
1994. Gilda Radner at the Internet Broadway Database
Hischak, Thomas S. American Theatre: A Chronicle of Comedy
and Drama, 1969-2000. Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN
0-19-512347-6.
"Mark Twain on Coldest Winter". Snopes.com. 26 September
2007. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
Song, Jenny. "America's Funny Girl". CR Magazine. Spring
2009.
"Gilda Radner". Find A Grave.
Squires, Sally. "Fighting Ovarian Cancer: Doctors Don't Know
Who Is At Risk and Why." Washington Post. 30 May 1989. Gilda Radner Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry.
Deming, Mark. "Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny
Jewish Women". New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2012.
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