No matter how immortal the comic, no one lives forever. From Richard Pryor to Robin Williams,
these are final performances from many of comedy’s greatest icons.
John Belushi first tried out his manic, sarcastic comedy style in a Chicago-area,
anti-establishment coffee house in 1969. Shortly after that first appearance,
he was invited to join the famous Chicago-based improv group The Second
City. But it wasn't until 1975, when Lorne Michaels offered him a spot on his new sketch
comedy series called "Saturday Night Live" that Belushi became known to a wider audience.
Belushi spent four seasons on the series, leaving in 1979 at the height of his popularity
to begin a string of film projects with fellow cast member Dan Aykroyd,
including mega-hits like "The Blues Brothers." Other notable films on his resume include
the Steven Spielberg flop, "1941," and the classic "National Lampoon's Animal House."
"I'm a zit. Get it?!"
In 1982, Belushi was found dead at the Chateau Marmont from a drug overdose.
He was 33. The last project he ever filmed was an episode of "Police Squad!"
Unfortunately for fans, his scene was cut before the episode aired, and the footage has either
been lost or completely destroyed. As a result, his last publicly released on-screen appearance
was in the film "Neighbors," which had come out just three months prior to his death.
Chris Farley and John Belushi had eerily similar lives, careers, and fates. Both midwesterners,
Farley and Belushi got their start in the Chicago branch of The Second City, would go
on to be "SNL" cast members, and would die at the age of 33 from drug overdoses. They also
shared an edgy style of comedy that more prudish audiences were quick to dismiss as inappropriate.
Farley, who joined the "SNL" cast in 1990, eight years after Belushi's death,
frequently collaborated with fellow castmates Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows,
and David Spade, forming a clique that would come to be known as "the bad boys of SNL."
It was this group of funnymen that would help Farley bring some of his best-known
characters — like Matt Foley, the over-the-top motivational speaker — to life. After "SNL,"
Farley would go on to star in movies like "Tommy Boy," "Airheads," and "Black Sheep."
"I'm just dandy! I've got a bowl of chocolate pudding in my underpants!"
"We didn't have any pudding in there, buddy."
Following his death in 1997, Farley appeared in two more theatrical films, "Dirty Work"
and "Almost Heroes," neither of which was very successful. However, both of those films were
completed months before his death, making his final filmed appearance the October 25,
1997 episode of "SNL" which he hosted less than two months before his death.
Robin Williams broke into the stand-up comedy scene in San Francisco back in the 1970s.
He performed at many of the Bay Area's biggest clubs, perfecting his irreverent,
lightning-quick, and quippy style as well as his impeccable impressions of everyone from heads of
state to cartoon characters. In 1977, he made his first TV appearance on an episode of "Laugh-In"
and released his first special, "Off the Wall," a year later. From there,
Williams went on to land a starring role on "Mork & Mindy," and the rest, as they say, is history.
Over the course of his decades-long career, Williams starred in a number of box-office
hits like "Aladdin" and "Mrs. Doubtfire," proving along the way that he also had
a serious side in projects like "Good Will Hunting" and "Dead Poets Society."
But in 2014, the seemingly happy-go-lucky, Academy Award-winning actor shocked the world
when he died by suicide. It would later be revealed that he had been suffering
from Lewy Body dementia, which affected his sense of wellbeing, among other things. .
At the time of his death, Williams had several unreleased projects, including
"Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb," which would be his final on-screen appearance,
as museum exhibit Teddy Roosevelt come to life. The film's director, Shawn Levy, told USA Today,
"It's tremendously, poignantly ironic that the movie's central theme is about letting go of
something you love. I never expected it would also be about letting go of this actor we all love."
The queen of character comedy, Gilda Radner was the first cast member creator Lorne Michaels
signed to "Saturday Night Live." Michaels, who had seen Radner's work with the improv
troupe The Second City and on "The National Lampoon Show," told The New York Times:
"I felt there was a remarkable quality to her,
a goodness which came through whatever she was doing."
She spent five years on the series, writing many of her own skits and
creating iconic characters like Roseanne Roseannadanna, and winning an Emmy in 1978.
Radner also spent quite a bit of time in the theater,
including her own Broadway show called "Gilda Live." However, her thriving career came
to an abrupt halt in 1986 when she was diagnosed with stage IV ovarian cancer.
Her last on-screen appearance was as a guest star on buddy Garry Shandling's sitcom,
"It's Garry Shandling's Show." The 1988 episode was filmed just months before she found out that
the cancer, which had been in remission for some time, had returned. She told The Washington Post
"It was my first time going back on television, and I gotta tell you,
I loved it. I was soooo happy. Once I got there,
I couldn't get enough. I wasn't worried about myself physically or healthwise."
A little over a year after the episode aired, Radner died of ovarian cancer.
Yet another comedian with ties to The Second City, John Candy honed his comedic timing in the
Toronto branch's training program before landing a spot on its "Second City Television" series.
He won two Emmy Awards for his work on the series between 1981 and 1983,
which opened doors for him in Hollywood, and he was quickly cast in a number
of successful films like "Uncle Buck" and "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles."
During his lifetime, much was made of his physical appearance -– he was 6'3" and
often weighed in excess of 275 pounds. At the time of his death, in 1994,
the New York Daily News reported that he actually weighed more than 350 pounds. It is believed that
his size was a factor in the heart attack that led to his death at the age of 43.
When he died, Candy was actually in the midst of shooting his final film,
"Wagons East!" The movie, which was finished with the use of stunt doubles and special effects,
was a critical flop. Fans would see him one more time, though, as the 1995 film
"Canadian Bacon" had actually been completed in 1993 prior to the shooting of "Wagons East!"
A woman ahead of her time, Lucille Ball was the star of her own show, a studio executive,
and a producer, at a time when the best many women could hope for was a decent role in someone else's
project. She began her career as a contract player at RKO, taking bit parts and roles in B movies,
before throwing all her energy into a TV pilot idea she developed alongside her husband,
Desi Arnaz. It took CBS some convincing to pick up the show, but once they did, "I Love Lucy"
became an overnight success, with millions of Americans tuning in to watch each week.
A national institution, Ball's comedy style was born from an impeccable sense of timing,
an incredible ability to pantomime,
and a gift for making even the most outrageous scenarios feel believable for her audience.
In 1938, The New York Times wrote that Ball, quote, "​​is rapidly becoming one of our
brightest comediennes." She continued to spread that brightness right up to her death in 1989.
Ball's last scripted on-screen appearance was in an episode of "Life with Lucy,"
an ill-fated reboot of the "I Love Lucy" franchise that lasted for only eight episodes.
But her true last on-screen appearance was at the televised 1989 Oscars, where she appeared
alongside Bob Hope to introduce a song-and-dance segment called "The Stars of Tomorrow."
Phil Hartman began to hone the more technical aspects of his comedy routine when he unexpectedly
joined The Groundlings, a California-based improv group. The story goes like this:
Hartman was in the audience at one of their shows and was invited up on stage to participate.
Accepting the invitation, he almost immediately stole the show.
Tracy Newman, a founder of the group, told ABC News,
"I never saw an audience member come up with that kind of excitement and
energy [...] it was like a hurricane hit that stage, and I mean in a good way."
It wasn't long until Hartman joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live," becoming one of the
show's most beloved cast members. He followed "SNL" with roles on the sitcom "News Radio" and
"The Simpsons." While his professional life was flourishing, his personal life wasn't faring quite
as well. By 1987, he was on his third marriage, to model Brynn Omdahl, who reportedly struggled with
substance addiction. In May, 1998, Hartman was murdered by his wife, who then took her own life.
The last time Hartman physically appeared on-screen before his death was on a 1998
episode of "3rd Rock from the Sun" called "Eat, Drink, Dick, Mary." but would appear as Mr.
Fimple in the family movie, “Small Soldiers” shortly after his death.
However, his last project to ever be released was a 1999 episode of "Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales
for Every Child," where he lent his voice to a character simply credited as Game Show Host.
In the early 1970s, Tony Award-winning actress Madeline Kahn made the jump from Broadway shows
to the movies, becoming a household name with the release of films like "What's Up,
Doc?," "Paper Moon," "Blazing Saddles," "Young Frankenstein," and "High Anxiety."
Mel Brooks, who directed some of Kahn's most famous films, told The New York Times,
"She is one of the most talented people that ever lived. I mean, either in stand-up comedy,
or acting, or whatever you want, you can't beat Madeline Kahn."
Tragically, in 1999, shortly after finishing a voiceover role in "A Bug's
Life," Khan was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, dying in December of that year.
Her last on-screen project was an indie movie called "Judy Berlin." Given the budget of the
film, it didn't receive as much publicity or attention as Kahn's previous projects. Still,
critics from outlets like "All Movie" generally praised her performance as
"lend[ing] the proceedings a funny, infectious sense of wonder" as a "loopy" mom.
Don Knotts once called John Ritter, quote, "the greatest physical comedian on the planet."
Born into a Hollywood dynasty (his mother Dorothy Fay was an actress,
and his father was the singing cowboy Tex Ritter), Ritter's connections helped him
land his first film role in the Disney film "The Barefoot Executive." Then,
in 1977, he really made it big when he landed a starring role on the sitcom "Three's Company,"
which the Chicago Tribune credits with bringing, quote, "a new level of risque humor to TV."
The success of the series helped Ritter land more than 100 roles in TV series, films,
and stage productions, from 1990's Stephen King miniseries "It" to his final live-action film
"Bad Santa." At the time of his death, he was working on his second successful sitcom,
"8 Simple Rules," which wrote his death into the plot and carried on for another full season. In
fact, it was on the set of this series, in 2003, where he first began to experience chest pains,
before being transported to a hospital and dying of an undetected heart problem.
A number of Ritter's projects were released posthumously, including several episodes of
"Clifford the Big Red Dog," several episodes of both "8 Simple Rules" and "King of the Hill,"
and the aforementioned "Bad Santa." The very last of these projects to be released was an
animated children's movie called "Stanley's Dinosaur Round-up," which came out in 2006.
Born and raised on the south side of Chicago,
Bernie Mac only dabbled in comedy while plugging away at various jobs.
He performed at clubs where nobody else would work, telling The Washington Post,
"I had to do clubs where street gangs were,
had to do motorcycle gangs [...] and things of that nature."
Eventually, his work paid off. He began to win comedy contests,
and earned small roles in a variety of movies. It was "The Original Kings of Comedy" tour,
as well as the Spike Lee film of the same name, that really made him a star. A stint
on "Moesha" and then his own series, "The Bernie Mac Show," quickly followed. But it all came to
an end in 2008 when Mac died of complications from pneumonia that stemmed from sarcoidosis disease.
His final on-screen appearance was in a movie called "Old Dogs" that also starred
John Travolta and Robin Williams. Bernie Mac played a children's puppeteer in the
film which was tactfully described as "chaos" by the Times. The film was released in 2009.
Joan Rivers was one of comedy's most divisive figures -– you either loved
her or you hated her. Her sharp, acerbic style certainly wasn't for everyone,
but it did help her become a pioneer for women in comedy and made her,
as one New York Times critic put it, quote, "the most intuitively funny woman alive."
From stand-up routines in Greenwich Village comedy clubs to her red carpet hosting partnership with
E!, Rivers never lost her edge or gave in to the pressure to tone her voice down.
She also never lost her urge to work, saying "yes" to seemingly every project that came her way,
from QVC clothing and jewelry lines to commercials and sponsorships to book deals.
She worked all the way up until the age of 81, when, in September 2014,
she died following complications stemming from a routine outpatient surgery.
Her final on-camera appearance was in an episode of her web series "In Bed With Joan."
Hosting the show from her literal bed, Rivers would engage in no-holds-barred conversations
with some of the biggest celebrities and comedians of the era. LeAnn Rimes and Eddie
Cibrian were guests on the last episode, which aired one day before she went in for surgery.
Phyllis Diller didn't get her start until the age of 37. Still, from her first performance,
in a San Francisco comedy club in 1955 to her last on a 2012 episode of "The Bold and
Beautiful," Diller earned more laughs than other comics who started at half her age.
Her self-deprecating style and over-the-top appearance helped her
shine in a time when very few female comics were finding success in the stand-up scene.
Diller shared a close friendship with Bob Hope, and the two worked together
on several films including "Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!" Diller also released a number
of comedy albums, had her own variety show called "The Phyllis Diller Show,"
did a run on Broadway in "Hello Dolly!," took guest roles on a number of popular sitcoms,
and lent her voice to a host of animated series. In 2012, CNN reported that Diller,
quote, "died peacefully in her sleep" at the age of 95, as related by her manager.
According to Entertainment Weekly, her final on-screen appearance wasn't as a character or
even the stand-up caricature she'd crafted over the years, but as herself on a 2013 episode of
Bravo's "Dukes of Melrose" reality show. During the episode, host Cameron Silver quipped that
Diller's closet, quote, "represents a life well lived [...] and shopped."
Richard Pryor was one of the biggest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time,
with a groundbreaking career that spanned four decades. He got his start performing in New York
comedy clubs, before being offered guest spots on late-night shows and tours in Las Vegas.
Over the next 40 years, he recorded a number of comedy albums, worked as a sitcom writer,
and starred in movies like "Stir Crazy" and "See No Evil, Hear No Evil."
One thing that set Pryor apart from his fellow comedians was the way he leaned into his cultural
identity. He frequently used street slang in his acts and told stories about life as a Black man,
always including insightful social commentary. Keenen Ivory Wayans told the Times,
"Pryor started it all. He made the blueprint for the progressive thinking of Black comedians,
unlocking that irreverent style."
In 2005, CNN reported that Pryor, who had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis years prior,
had died of a heart attack. His last on-screen appearance was on the show
"Norm," where he appeared in the cold open as a wheelchair-bound elderly man
who had been kicked out of his nursing program for hitting the nurses.
Although Andy Kaufman hated being called a comedian, it seems almost
impossible to classify him as anything else. He once told an interviewer at The New York Times,
"I am not a comic, I have never told a joke. [...] The comedian's promise
is that he will go out there and make you laugh with him. [...] My
only promise is that I will try to entertain you as best I can."
Best known for playing Latka on "Taxi," he guest-starred on "SNL" a number of times, got
into a staged fight on the variety show "Fridays," and he dabbled in professional wrestling opposite
Jerry Lawler for a number of years. His work was often so bizarre and out-there,
that when he died of lung cancer in 1984 many of his closest friends assumed it was a hoax.
According to IMDb, Kaufman's last on-screen appearance was in "My Breakfast with Blassie."
The Los Angeles premiere of the film was Kaufman's last public appearance.
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