For every up-and-coming comic Saturday Night Live turns into a Hollywood icon, there are
dozens of equally talented men and women who just don't become household names.
You may not have known that these SNL stars passed away, but, you'll definitely remember
the way they made you crack up every weekend.
Charles Rocket
Under other circumstances, Charles Rocket could have been a huge SNL star.
But he joined the cast for the 1980 season, the one without Lorne Michaels, which successor
Jean Doumanian infamously mismanaged.
"This game tomorrow means a lot to all of us, not because of the superb match of talent
we're going to see, but because each one of us personally has bet an awful lot of money
on it."
Rocket provided some of that season's few notable moments, such as his amusing "The
Rocket Report," a series of "man-on-the-street" segments.
"They have lots of stereo equipment.
They must be a gang of thieves, I guess.
Are you thieves, then?"
Oh, and he also said the F-word live on the air.
The February 21, 1981, episode of SNL was hosted by Dallas star Charlene Tilton, and
the show parodied her show's huge "Who Shot J.R.?" plot line by having an unknown gunman
take a shot at Rocket.
At the end of the episode, during the part when the cast waves goodnight from the stage,
Tilton asked Rocket how it felt to be shot.
He replied:
"Ah, man.
It's the first time I've ever been shot in my life.
I'd like to know who f—-ing did it."
Dropping the F bomb on network TV was a huge violation of FCC rules; Rocket quickly lost
his job.
He went on to a decent career specializing in playing jerks, cads, and villains in comedies.
Sadly, the 56-year-old's body was found near his Connecticut home in 2005.
The medical examiner's office ruled his death a suicide.
Tony Rosato
When Dick Ebersol took the reins on SNL in 1981, he built the cast up from scratch, starting
with members of SNL's competition and Canadian counterpart, Second City Television, or SCTV.
While Ebersol couldn't persuade Catherine O'Hara to switch teams, he did land Robin
Duke and Tony Rosato.
Unfortunately, Rosato didn't get much screen time, he was too stylistically similar to
one of the show's big stars, Joe Piscopo.
While Rosato managed to spawn a few memorable skits during his run, he was fired at the
end of the 1981-82 season.
He worked steadily on Canadian TV, but then mental illness took a tragic toll.
In 2005, Rosato called police to report that imposters had replaced his wife and baby.
The cops didn't believe him, of course, and instead arrested Rosato on charges of criminal
harassment, for which the comedian spent four years in custody, two in maximum security
prison, and two in a psychiatric facility.
About a decade after his release and rehabilitation, Rosato passed away from a heart attack in
January 2017.
He was 62.
Jan Hooks
In the late '80s and early '90s, SNL cast members called Phil Hartman "the glue" because
he was a versatile utility player who kept the show together and made everything better.
But who was his frequent and most memorable scene partner?
The equally multi-faceted Jan Hooks.
The Georgia-born actress was a scene-stealer and delivered pointed and fierce celebrity
impressions, such as a laser-focused Hillary Clinton, a smarmy Diane Sawyer, and a phony
Tammy Faye Bakker opposite Hartman's televangelist Jim Bakker.
"So, I asked my doctor what to do and he recommended this: Balz-off."
"Hi honey.
I got off work early so I came straight home and fixed dinner."
Hooks left SNL for primetime in 1991, joining the cast of CBS's hit Designing Women before
taking a series of bit parts way too small for someone of her comic stature, but then
again, who else but Hooks could've pulled off Jenna's sleazy mother on 30 Rock?
In 2014, 57-year-old Hooks died from throat cancer.
"We learn late today Jan Hooks has died.
She was a veteran cast member of Saturday Night Live best known for her half of the
Sweeney Sisters, the unctuous lounge duo."
Shortly after her death, SNL paid tribute with the re-airing of the poignant 1988 short
film "Love is a Dream," which starred Hooks and Hartman.
George Coe
Among Saturday Night Live's original cast of young, relatively unknown performers was
a show biz veteran named George Coe.
He'd performed in Broadway shows and on TV and earned an Academy Award nomination for
his 1968 short film "The Dove."
Then 46, and the oldest cast member on the show by far, Coe was credited by name on only
the first episode of SNL in 1975, but appeared in supporting roles throughout that inaugural
season.
After Coe left the series, he continued to rack up credits and is probably best known
to modern audiences as the voice of put-upon butler Woodhouse on Archer.
He died at age 85 in 2015.
Danitra Vance
Vance was part of the cast of SNL for just the 1985 to 1986 season, but she's in the
show's history books for a few reasons.
She was the first African-American woman to be a full-time or "repertory" cast member,
as well as the first lesbian cast member.
She also struggled with dyslexia.
Writer/producer/cast member Al Franken said in Li ve from New York: The Complete Uncensored
History of Saturday Night that Vance's learning disability manifested in an inability to read
cue cards during live broadcasts.
However, Vance had a background in theater and performance art, which gave her the tools
to ad-lib her way through sketches.
A lot of Vance's work on SNL was solo, theater-ish stuff, like her portrayal of teenage mother
Cabrini Green Harlem Watts Jackson and "Shakespeare in the Slums."
"I'm up here on my back porch, and he's down here in the alleyway looking in my window.
Now, he's not looking at my window because he's a freak, he's looking at my window because
he likes me a lot."
Just a few years after her brief stint on SNL, Vance was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Despite a mastectomy, Vance passed away on August 21, 1994.
Michael O'Donoghue
SNL's occasional bursts of edgy darkness are the legacy of its first head writer, and occasional
performer, Michael O'Donoghue.
O'Donoghue appeared in the very first sketch on the very first episode of SNL, portraying
an English teacher who makes his student, played by John Belushi, repeat nonsensical
phrases.
"Repeat after me: I would like."
"I would like"
"to feed your fingertips"
"to the wolverines."
"To the wolverines."
While he was best known for playing "Mr. Mike," a vaguely unsettling figure who read inappropriate
children's stories like "The Little Train That Died," he also performed impressions
of what cheesy celebrities like Tony Orlando would sound like if they shoved needles into
their eyes.
O'Donoghue was an incredibly influential voice in comedy from his time on SNL, but he didn't
stop when he left the show.
He wrote and directed the cult classic Mr. Mike's Mondo Video, and he even lent his talents
to Scrooged, co-writing it with his frequent collaborator Mitch Glazer.
In 1994, O'Donoghue died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 54.