The One-In-A-Million Gilda Radner
Gilda was a comic genius and the lifeblood of Saturday Night Live!
June 28, 1946
Gilda Radner, the American Emmy-winning comedian who took Saturday Night Live! by storm in the 1970’s was born on this date in Detroit, Michigan. Gilda’s conservative, Jewish parents were very loving and her father Herman, with whom she was very close, operated Detroit's Seville Hotel, one of the city’s finest.
Herman was a witty man who made friends easily, getting to know personally the many nightclub performers and actors who made the Seville Hotel home while in the city performing. It was Herman that urged Gilda towards the arts, taking her frequently to New York City to experience Broadway and the culture of the city.
Then, in a tragic twist, Herman Radner died of a brain tumor when Gilda was fifteen, a devastating emotional blow which drove Gilda towards comedy as a way to cope. After attending the prestigious Liggett School in Detroit, Gilda enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, but left during her senior year to follow her boyfriend to Toronto where she began an acting career. She joined The Second City comedy troupe in 1973 and in 1974 became a regular on National Lampoon’s Radio Hour which led to her being cast as one of the original “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” on Saturday Night Live! Gilda Radner was actually the first performer cast for the show, writing and developing comedy for her own skits as well as many others on the program. Her character Roseanne Roseannadana is legendary.
After a series of failed romances and marriages, Gilda met Gene Wilder on the set of the Sidney Poitier film Hanky Panky (1982) and the two were married on September 18, 1984, in Saint Tropez.
"The day Gilda and I met,” said Wilder during a 2006 interview, “I was in my makeup and dressed in a tuxedo. I walked up to her to say hello and it was like bumping into an old friend. We just had this wonderful connection. We were best friends."
Not long after their marriage, Gilda began experiencing pain and fatigue. Eventually agreeing to have tests performed, Gilda was diagnosed with Stage IV ovarian cancer on October 21, 1986. Immediately beginning treatment, she found that the cancer had spread to her liver and lungs. After a brief period of remission, the cancer returned and she passed away on May 20, 1989, with her husband Gene Wilder by her side.
There are several interesting articles written by Gene Wilder during his life that detail Gilda's battle with cancer. In 1998, Wilder went into further detail about Radner’s cancer treatment in the book “Gilda’s Disease,” which he co-wrote with oncologist Dr. Steven Piver. Wilder later testified before Congress about his experiences with the medical community and urged the members to make experimental drugs more widely available.
Gene Wilder was also a comic genius.
Did anyone see the recent SNL "50th Anniversary" Special? It was very good. One of the features had Lorraine Newman going back to the set and reminiscing about her times on SNL. She did a great job, but she's now unrecognizable compared to what she looked like in the mid-1970s.
Steve Martin, 79, did the monologue, which was as funny as ever. Paul Simon, who must be even older, sang one of his songs, accompanied by a contemporary singer I've never heard of.
Eddie Murphy came back. They even had Woody Harrelson in one skit. I remember the last time Woody hosted the show, he ad-libbed a joke about not trusting Big Pharma. I thought for sure that would get him permanently banned .... but, I was happy to see, it didn't.