Before SNL
Gilda Radner was born on June 28, 1946 in Detroit, Michigan to a wealthy, Jewish family. Throughout her childhood, Gilda found it extremely difficult to make friends largely due to the fact that her family relocated to Florida for a few months each year because her mother hated the winter weather of the Great Lakes. As a result, Gilda’s relationship with her mother became tense, which subsequently led her to form a bond with her father that was mainly centered on their mutual appreciation for the performing arts.
This appreciation ultimately resulted in Gilda attending the University of Michigan for theater. However, Gilda left Michigan during her senior year, opting instead to move to Toronto with her then Canadian boyfriend, Jeffrey Rubinoff (Fun Fact: Michigan Still Sucks). In Toronto, Gilda furthered her performing experience by joining the Toronto branch of the Chicago-based improv group, The Second City.
Through the Second City Gilda met future fellow SNL cast members, John Belushi and Dan Akroyd. In a path similar to other SNL greats, Chevy Chase and John Belushi, Gilda then moved to New York City where she began working with comedy giant, National Lampoon, and as a result caught the eye of NBC’s Lorne Michaels.
Studio 8H
One of three females in SNL’s initial cast, Gilda quickly made a name for herself with her charming comedic style that ranged from in your face to pleasantly subtle. Gilda was famous for being the first person to really make fun of television news anchors (Fun Fact: She was a weather anchor for her campus news station in Ann Arbor). One of her more notable impressions was her character Baba Wawa, who was inspired by the speech impediment of ABC News anchor, Barbara Walters.
Gilda’s most famous character however, was her fictional anchor who occasionally appeared on Weekend Update named Roseanne Rosannadanna.
Gilda won a Primetime Emmy in 1977 for “Outstanding Continuing or Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Variety or Music” for her work on SNL. She would eventually leave the show in 1980 to pursue a film career.
Outside Work
Gilda’s film career failed to ever really take off with her movies often flopping at the box office. Some of Gilda’s notable movies included First Family (1980), It Came From Hollywood (1982), Hanky Panky (1982), The Woman In Red (1984), and Haunted Honeymoon (1986). The latter three were all collaborations with her second husband and famous comedian in his own right, Gene Wilder.
Sadly, Gilda’s film career came to a sudden end in 1986 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Death
In 1989 Gilda published a memoir detailing her life experiences entitled, It’s Always Something. That same year, on May 20th she passed away. On May 20, 1989, Steve Martin, a longtime friend of Gilda, was the host for SNL. After almost breaking down during his monologue, Martin and the rest of the SNL staff payed tribute to Gilda by rerunning a sketch from 1979 of her and Steve Martin entitled, Dancing in the Dark.
Opinion
There is no doubt in my mind that if Gilda had never been diagnosed with cancer she could have easily reached movie stardom and probably would have become a household name similar to the likes of her fellow cast members, Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, and Chevy Chase. Gilda was an inspiration to countless female comedians including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Kristin Wiig. She will forever be another of SNL’s greatest “what ifs”.