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Phil Hartman (born as Philip Edward Hartmann) (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was a Canadian-American Emmy Award-winning actor, voice artist, comedian, graphic artist and writer.

He first came to widespread attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s for his roles on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, afterwards going on to motion pictures, frequent roles on the long-running FOX animated series The Simpsons, and a major part as "Bill McNeal" on the NBC sitcom NewsRadio.

Early life

Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada to Doris M. and Rupert L. Hartmann. His family emigrated to the United States in 1957, and Hartman attended Westchester High School and Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles, California, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in the early-1990s. The exact timing of his switch from "Hartmann" to "Hartman" is unknown, but all of his acting credits after 1986 were billed under the surname "Hartman".

Career

Early career

Looking for what he described as "a psychological release valve", he joined the California-based comedy group The Groundlings in 1975 . Hartman met comedian Paul Reubens while working with the group and the two became friends, often writing and working on material together. One such collaboration was the character of Pee-wee Herman and the script of the feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Hartman also met Jon Lovitz while with The Groundlings. Hartman was fluent in German. and a video circulated once of him doing a standup routine in the language.

Hartman worked part time as a graphic artist, including designing album covers for popular rock bands. Hartman's covers include:

• Steely Dan's 1977 album Aja
• Poco's 1978 album Legend
• Firesign Theatre's 1980 album Fighting Clowns
• Three album covers for the band America
• Crosby, Stills & Nash's logo.

Television career

In 1986, Hartman joined the cast of NBC's popular variety show Saturday Night Live and stayed for eight seasons, which was a record at the time. Hartman was known for his impressions, which included Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Telly Savalas, Ed McMahon, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Barbara Bush, Burt Reynolds, Phil Donahue, and former president Bill Clinton, which was perhaps his best-known impression. His other Saturday Night Live characters included Frankenstein's monster and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. He returned twice to host the show following his 1994 departure.

Also in 1986, Hartman reprised his role as Captain Carl, one of Pee-Wee Herman's close friends and famed sea captain in the first season of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. He left after the 13th episode. He also lent his voice to the cartoon version of Dennis the Menace, playing Henry Mitchell (Dennis' father) and long suffering neighbor George Wilson.

From 1991 to 1998, Hartman also provided the voices for a number of characters on the popular animated series The Simpsons, including dubious attorney Lionel Hutz, B-movie actor Troy McClure, Bart's "bigger brother" Tom, and slippery monorail shyster Lyle Lanley. In the episode "Selma's Choice", he lent his voice to five different characters, including McClure and Hutz. He also voiced Bill Clinton

In 1994, Hartman left SNL. His last scene on Saturday Night Live consisted of him consoling Chris Farley (who was dressed as his Matt Foley character). Hartman's next project was to be a self-titled network variety show; after Dana Carvey announced plans for his own variety show, Hartman instead cast his eye on a more standard sitcom. In 1995, he became one of the stars of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, where he portrayed fatuous radio news anchor Bill McNeal. Many have attributed the cancellation of the show to Hartman's death, citing that the humor was thrown off balance despite the casting of Lovitz (who replaced Hartman). Ironically in two episodes of NewsRadio Hartman's character was one of only two to survive tragedies. He makes mention several times of a girlfriend who is unstable and who tries to kill him. He also believes he is being stalked by strangers including a man dressed as Santa Claus. In one episode a psychic tells Bill the date of his death, March 8, 2032.

Hartman was appearing in a cliffhanger on the series 3rd Rock from the Sun at the time of his death. His character did not appear in the second episode of the cliffhanger.

Secondary film roles

Hartman's filmography includes often secondary or supporting roles in such feature films as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Greedy, Houseguest, Coneheads, Three Amigos, Stuart Saves His Family (voice only), Sgt. Bilko, So I Married an Axe Murderer, CB4, Jingle All The Way and Small Soldiers, the last of which would become his final silver screen appearance and was thus dedicated to him. His last role was in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, where he provided the voice of Jiji the cat. The English dub of the movie was also dedicated to his memory.

Personal life

Hartman married Gretchen Lewis in 1970, and divorced at an unknown point, before 1982. In 1982 he married his second wife Lisa Strain, the marriage lasted three years with the couple divorcing in 1985. Hartman married Brynn Hartman on November 25 1987, Brynn having become pregnant on the pair's third date. Together they had two children, Sean Edward Hartman (born 1989) and Birgen Anika Hartman (born 1992). Brynn was immensely jealous of Hartman's success. She made comments to Hartman's Saturday Night Live co-star Jan Hooks that maybe Hooks and Phil were married "on some other level". A friend recalled that Brynn Hartman "had trouble controlling her anger. ... She got attention by losing her temper."

Death

On May 28 1998, Hartman was murdered by Brynn Hartman in his Encino, Los Angeles, California home. While he slept, Brynn entered his bedroom with a revolver and fatally shot him multiple times in and around the head. Brynn was intoxicated at the time. She subsequently drove to the home of her friend Ron Douglas and after confessing to the murder, fainted. After she regained consciousness, the pair drove back to Hartman's house in separate cars, where Douglas saw Hartman's body. Douglas then phoned the emergency services and admitted to the call operator that he initially did not believe Brynn's story until he had seen Phil's body. On arrival, the police attempted to remove the Hartmans' two young children and Douglas from the premises. While this was happening, Brynn entered the bedroom and committed suicide by shooting herself once through the temple. At the time, an unnamed neighbour of the Hartmans told a CNN reporter that the couple had been experiencing marital problems: "It's been building, but I didn't think it would lead to this." However, Steve Guttenberg commented that the pair were "a very happy couple, and they always had the appearance of being well-balanced." Phil Hartman directed in his will that his body be cremated, and his ashes were scattered over Santa Catalina Island's Emerald Bay.

The children are now being raised in Edina, Minnesota by Brynn's sister Katharine Wright and her husband Mike, who have no children of their own. As guardians of Sean and Birgen, the pair were awarded $50,000 per Phil Hartman's will. In May 2000, the Hartman children were awarded more than $10,000 each in a wrongful death suit. Hartman's will stipulated that each child will receive a third of their inheritance when they reach age 25, or obtain a bachelor's degree from a four-year accredited university. They get half their inheritance when they turn thirty, and the remainder of Hartman's assets when they turn 35. The total amount of Hartman's estate was estimated at $1.23 million.

Blame

Los Angeles police stated that Hartman's murder was due to a "domestic discord" between the couple. At the time of the murder, Brynn Hartman was known to have been taking the antidepressant drug Zoloft, which was cited as the cause of her actions. A wrongful-death suit was filed by Brynn's brother, Gregory Omdahl, against the drug's manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., and her psychiatrist Arthur Sorosky, who prescribed the product.

Response

Hartman was mourned greatly in Hollywood. NewsRadio produced a special episode where the cast tearfully mourned the death of Hartman's on-screen counterpart. Jon Lovitz joined the show in his place and stayed with it until its ultimate cancellation. Lovitz had been a Saturday Night Live cast member alongside Hartman for four seasons, and had also worked with Hartman when they both had cameos in the 1986 comedy Three Amigos. Lovitz and Hartman's former SNL colleagues—Jan Hooks, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson, and Mike Myers—also gave him an emotional remembrance at the SNL 25th Anniversary show in 2000. Hartman's nickname, coined by Adam Sandler, according to Jay Mohr's book Gasping for Airtime was "Glue", because of his way of working well with everyone, and keeping many episodes together. Hartman was widely praised for his efforts to help new writers and cast members, as well as his professionalism on and off the set. Many people gave tributes to Hartman. Don Ohlmeyer said that Hartman "was blessed with a tremendous gift for creating characters that made people laugh. But more importantly, everyone who had the pleasure of working with Phil knows that he was a man of tremendous warmth, a true professional and a loyal friend." Steve Guttenberg expressed his shock at Hartman's death, and Steve Martin called him "a deeply funny and very happy person".

Out of respect, the writers on The Simpsons retired Hartman's characters, rather than finding another voice actor. The episode "Bart the Mother" marked his final appearance on the show, and was dedicated to him. On audio commentary tracks accompanying The Simpsons DVD releases, the appearance of a Hartman character uniformly evokes heartfelt praise from the show's production staff. A number of major Simpsons players talk at length about their experience of Hartman as a rare combination of professionalism, effortless comedic facility, friendliness, and decency. Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein stated that they used Hartman as much as they possibly could in their seasons, as they were such big fans of him. It was noted by The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, that his voice acting could produce "the maximum amount of humour" out of any line he was given. Before his death, Hartman had expressed an interest in making a live action film about Troy McClure, with many of The Simpsons production staff stating that they would have loved to help create it.

At the time of his death, Hartman was preparing to voice Zapp Brannigan, a character on Groening's other animated series Futurama, which was written specifically for him. After he died, the lead character in Futurama, Philip J. Fry, was named in Hartman's honor. Billy West took over the role. West's original audition characterization formed the basis for Brannigan's voice, but by coincidence his portrayal bears many similarities to Hartman's own vocal stylings. West later admitted that he purposefully tweaked Zapp's voice to better match Hartman's portrayal out of respect.

Hartman was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Bill McNeal in NewsRadio, but lost out to actor David Hyde Pierce. Upon learning Hartman did not win the award, NewsRadio co-star Dave Foley joked "What's this guy gotta do to win an Emmy?".

Filmography

References

1. ^ "Phil Hartman". Notable Names Database. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
2. ^ "Phil Hartman". Rotten Library. Retrieved 2007-06-23.
3. "Hartman's friends, fans ask: 'What went wrong?'". CNN. 1998-05-29. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
4. ^ "Cocaine, Margaritas, Zoloft and Saturday Night Live's Phil Hartman". Morbidly Hollywood. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
5. ^ "Police say Hartman's wife told friends about shooting". CNN. 1998-06-02. Retrieved 2007-06-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. ^ "Phil Hartman, wife die in apparent murder-suicide". CNN. 1998-05-28. Retrieved 2007-05-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. "Police: 'Domestic discord' behind Hartman slayings". CNN. 1998-05-28. Retrieved 2007-06-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
8. ^ "Suit puts 'mind-altering' drug on trial". Nami Scc. Retrieved 2007-06-22.
9. ^ Groening, Matt (2004-12-29). "Fresh Air" (Interview). Interviewed by Terry Gross. Retrieved 2007-06-09. {{cite interview}}: Unknown parameter |callsign= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |city= ignored (|location= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)
10. Weinstein, Josh; Oakley, Bill; Silverman, David; Goldblum, Jeff (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "A Fish Called Selma" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. {{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
11. Oakley, Bill (2006). The Simpsons The Complete Seventh Season DVD commentary for the episode "Homerpalooza" (DVD). 20th Century Fox. {{cite AV media}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
12. ^ Joel Keller (2006-06-15). "Billy West: The TV Squad Interview". TV Squad.com. Retrieved 2007-06-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
13. Joyce Millman (1998-06-23). "blue glow". Salon. Retrieved 2007-06-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Phil Hartman at IMDb
• John Hartmann Speaks Out On Phil Hartman's Murder And The Hartman Children
• Frank's Info On Phil's Death
• Maxim Rated Top SNL performer

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• American comedians
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• American film actors
• American television actors
• American voice actors
• California actors
• Cal State Northridge alumni
• Groundlings
• People from Brantford
• People from Los Angeles
• German Canadians
• Naturalized citizens of the United States
• Canadian immigrants to the United States
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• Deaths by firearm in the United States
• 1948 births
• 1998 deaths