Comedy legend and “Weekend Update” segment star on ‘SNL’, Norm Macdonald, has died at 61 years old. Macdonald has been in a fight against cancer for over 9 years.
According to Deadline, Macdonald’s longtime producing partner and friend Lori Jo Hoekstra was reportedly at his side when he passed.
Apparently, Norm was such a private person he made sure to keep his struggles away from public eye and even his closest friends and family said, Hoekstra.
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.
Lori Jo Hoekstra to Deadline on Norm Macdonald Passing
A Little Norm Macdonald History
Macdonald first started as a writer on “Roseanne” in 1992 and then the following year became an “SNL” cast member in 1993 up until 1999.
He famously anchored the show’s Weekend Update sketch for three seasons and was replaced by Colin Quinn.
From Weekend Update to impersonating David Letterman and Larry King, and stepping in as Bob Dole during the 1996 presidential campaign.
Whi could forget when Norm appeared as Burt Reynolds on SNL’s long-running Celebrity Jeopardy! spoof, becoming perhaps the second-most famous antagonizer of Will Ferrell’s Alex Trebek, just behind Darrell Hammond’s incorrigible Sean Connery.
He was one of my favorite comedians because of his dried delivery and just odd facial expressions that just made it even funnier as bad as the jokes were and he will be missed by me and I’m sure many fans out there who grew up with this man as a part of their comedic entertainment.