8 Tragic ‘Saturday Night Live’ Deaths

At SNL50: The Anniversary Special, Adam Sandler sang a song that recapped the show’s many milestones—and while there were plenty of laughs, the song was also surprisingly emotional, as Sandler paid tribute to his fellow cast members Norm MacDonald, Chris Farley, and Phil Hartman, who have all passed away.

Here’s a look back at some SNL stars who were lost too soon.

1. John Belushi
2. Gilda Radner
3. Danitra Vance
4. Michael O’Donoghue
5. Chris Farley
6. Phil Hartman
7. Charles Rocket
8. Norm Macdonald

John Belushi

Easily one of the best-known cast members of all time, original player John Belushi also became a wildly successful film actor, and by the summer of 1978, Belushi had the No. 1 album (The Blues Brothers’ Briefcase Full of Blues), the No. 1 movie (Animal House), and was the star of the highest-rated late night television show (Saturday Night Live).

Of course, Belushi was equally well known for his drug and alcohol indulgences. In a sketch called “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” which aired in 1978, Belushi played an elderly version of himself, visiting the graves of his fellow cast members. “They all thought I’d be the first to go,” he says. “I was one of those live-fast, die-young, leave-a-good-looking-corpse types, you know. But I guess they were wrong.” Belushi died of a drug overdose at the famous Chateau Marmont hotel on March 5, 1982. Cocaine and heroin had been given to him by backup singer and groupie Cathy Smith, who would later serve prison time for her involvement in his death.

In one of his final television appearances, Belushi was filmed dead and face down in a swimming pool for the opening sequence of the show Police Squad. The footage was part of a running gag during the opening credits, where the episodes’ guest-star would meet a demise before the show even started. Due to his untimely death, the sequence never aired.

Gilda Radner

Original cast member Gilda Radner, known for her vibrant characters like Roseanne Roseannadanna and Baba Wawa, died on May 20, 1989 at the age of 42 from ovarian cancer. Radner’s cancer had been misdiagnosed several times; doctors removed a malignant tumor and Radner underwent chemotherapy, but the cancer came back. She had been scheduled to host an episode of SNL between her bouts of cancer but a writers’ strike ended the season prematurely. She died on a Saturday, just before a new episode of SNL was to air. A tearful Steve Martin introduced a clip of a skit featuring Radner and himself dancing.

Her widower, Gene Wilder, created the cancer support group Gilda‘s Club and Gilda Radner Hereditary Cancer Program at LA’s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and testified before Congress about ovarian cancer awareness.

Danitra Vance

Vance joined the SNL cast for the historically disappointing 1985 season and became the first Black woman repertory player. She received little screen time and was often blatantly typecast. One of her more famous recurring characters was Cabrini Green Jackson, a professional teenage mother who gave advice on pregnancy. Frustrated by her demeaning characters, Vance left at the end of her first season. The majority of the rest of the cast was fired shortly after she left due to poor ratings.

Four years after she left the show, Vance was diagnosed with breast cancer. She went into remission and created a skit based on her experiences. Unfortunately, the cancer returned, and she died in 1993.

Michael O’Donoghue

Michael O’Donoghue was an integral part of the original SNL cast as the head writer. He appeared in many sketches, memorably in the opening of the first show as an English-language teacher instructing John Belushi in such phrases as I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines. He also played “Mr. Mike,” a grim character who told “Least-Loved Bedtime Stories.” He worked for the show on and off but left for good in 1985. O’Donoghue often experienced terrible migraines, and on November 8, 1994, he died after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

Chris Farley

Farley made himself a household name with his hilarious physical comedy. In addition to appearing on SNL from 1990–’95, he also starred in movies like Tommy Boy and Beverly Hills Ninja. But Farley struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, and though he repeatedly went to rehab, the treatments did not keep him sober. He died on December 18, 1997 at the age of 33 after accidentally overdosing on cocaine and morphine. At the time of his death, Farley had recorded vocal tracks for the title character in Shrek and was rumored to be starting work on a third Ghostbusters movie that was ultimately never made. Sandler would later write a song in tribute to his friend and perform it on SNL.

Phil Hartman

Phil Hartman appeared in eight seasons of SNL playing dozens of beloved characters. He even got the nickname “The Glue” because, as Kevin Nealon put it, “he held all the sketches together.” He served as a voice actor for The Simpsons from 1991–’98 and joined the cast of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio in 1995. But Hartman wasn’t just a comedian; he was also a graphic designer and created the logo for Crosby, Stills, and Nash and designed three album covers for America.

On May 28, 1998, Hartman, 49, was killed in his sleep by his wife, Brynn, who killed herself just hours later. According to The New York Times, toxicology reports showed that she “had cocaine, alcohol and a prescription anti-depressant in her system,” and, per People magazine, “had struggled with alcohol and cocaine abuse in the past {and} had recently begun drinking again after nearly a decade of sobriety.”

Charles Rocket

Rocket appeared on the 1980–’81 season of SNL (during which he dropped an f-bomb on live TV), and had a steady stream of acting work after the abrupt end on the show: He appeared in Dumb and Dumber and Hocus Pocus, among other films. In October 2005, Rocket was found dead in a field near his home. His unexpected and tragic death was ruled a suicide; a motive was never determined.

Norm Macdonald

Norm Macdonald joined the cast of SNL in 1993, and anchored the “Weekend Update” segment from 1994–’97—but his propensity for making O.J. Simpson jokes seemingly got him fired from the show. (The chief of NBC at the time was a friend of Simpson’s.) Following his time at SNL, he appeared in the movie Dirty Work and on his own show, The Norm Show. Macdonald died after a nine-year battle with cancer on September 14, 2021; he was 61 years old.

Current “Weekend Update” co-anchor Michael Che paid tribute to Macdonald on SNL50: The Anniversary Special with an O.J. joke of his own: “Since the 40th {anniversary}, we’ve lost the late, great Norm Macdonald ... who hosted ‘Weekend Update,’ until he was fired for making jokes about O.J. Simpson,” Che said. “And he’s obviously one of my heroes, so if you’re watching up there, I just wanna say, we love you O.J.”

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A version of this story ran in 2008; it has been updated for 2025.