Remembering a legend.

News, politics, TV, movies, music, sports, personal topics etc. goes here.
Post Reply
User avatar
ian
Null Dream Team
Posts: 3776
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2016 2:36 am

Remembering a legend.

Post by ian »

The 28th of May marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Phil Hartman

Chances are, you have heard or seen Phil Hartman’s work, even if you don’t know the name.

He helped Paul Reubens Create his Pee-wee Herman character, spent nearly a decade on Saturday Night Live portraying people such as: Andy Griffith, Barbara Bush, Bill Clinton, Burt Reynolds, Dame Edna, Donald Trump, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Gary Busey, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Cash, Ozzy Osbourne, Ronald Regan, Saddam Hussein among many others and was known for being an amazing voice actor.

In 1993, he had a small appearance in the Mike Meyers flop ‘So I married an Axe Murderer’

In 1994 After 8 years, he left Saturday night live after many of the people who he had worked with had already left. (Jon Lovitz, Jan Hooks and Dana Carvey) He was Offered a role as Jay Leno’s sidekick on the tonight show in 1992, but chose to stay with SNL.

By this point, Hartman was already a favourite of The Simpsons production team. He first appeared in the Season 2 Episode ‘Bart Gets Hit by a Car’ as Lawyer Lionel Hutz. Shortly after, the character Troy McClure was introduced, he would go on to portray both of these characters until his death.
Fun Fact: Dan Castellaneta has portrayed Troy McClure in the episodes ‘Bart’s Dog gets an F’ and ‘Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’
During his time on the Simpsons, Hartman provided many incidental and one off characters, including Lyle Lanley “I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook” Tom, (Barts Big brother) Even Conover, Undersecretary for International Protocol: Brat and Punk Division and a member of the US State Department and many more…

After leaving Saturday Night live, Hartman Became a cast member on the Sitcom NewsRadio in 1995, playing William “Bill” McNeal for four seasons. After his death, Jon Lovitz (The same Jon Lovitz who he did SNL with,) was brought in as a replacement for the 5th and final season of NewsRadio.
NewsRadio Also starred Mike Judge Favourite Stephen Root (King of the hill, Office Space, Idiocracy) and Andy Dick… This fact will be important later.

In 1996 he Guest starred on The Ren and Stimpy Show, Seinfeld, and 3rd Rock From the sun.

1997 was a relatively quiet year for Hartman. He appeared in a Simpsons video game and A TV film ‘The second civil war’
Matt Groening had started working on the concept for a new show at this point and impressed by Hartman with his years of great work on the Simpsons, had written a part specifically for Hartman in this new show…
Even though he had the character created specifically for him to portray, and was guaranteed the role, Hartman insisted on auditioning for the role of ‘Zapp Brannigan’ and according to everyone who worked on Futurama, Hartman nailed the audtion. After his death, the Character Phillip J. Fry was named after him

1998 was a busy year for Hartman. With ongoing roles in NewsRadio and The Simpsons, he also provided the voice of Captain Blasto in the game Blasto. The game was mostly panned: although all the reviews said that the game was worth playing simply for Hartmans voice acting alone.
He provided the voice for Jiji the cat in Disney’s English DUB of Kiki’s Delivery Service. (And anime fans, don’t go on about the changes to the English DUB… Miyazaki and Ghibli approved them)
He returned to live action for a small role in the movie ‘Small Soldiers’ and his future career was looking bright.

But this future was cut short. On the morning of the 28th of May 1998 after an argument with his wife about her drug use, His Wife Brynn entered the bedroom and shot him twice in the head and once in the side shortly before 3AM before taking her own life shortly after.
It was revealed she had recently taken cocaine.

After Hartmans death, rehearsals for the Simpsons and the groundlings comedy troupe performance were cancelled.
Jon Lovitz was brought onto the last season of Newsradio, SNL aired a special Hartman episode, The Simpsons episode ‘Bart the mother’ and the movie ‘Small Soldiers’ were dedicated to his memory.

Years later in 2006 AND 2007 Jon Lovitz got into altercations with Andy Dick who Lovitz accuses of giving drugs to Brynn.
In one of these altercations, Lovitz smashed Andy’s head into a bar a few times blaming him for the death of his friend.
Later on Lovitz said: “I’m not proud of it, but he’s a disgusting human being”

And even though Phil Hartman has been gone for 2 3rds of my life, His contributions have not been forgotten or taken for granted.
I still love his work, and if I ever get the chance I would shake Jon Lovitz's hand for bashing Andy Dick.
If I should Die Hard Arcade before I Alan Wake.
PREY the Lords of Lore my Soul Calibur to Take
-Two Interactive.

User avatar
Bandit
Wrestling Mod
Posts: 15511
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:17 am
Location: Parts Unknown

Re: Remembering a legend.

Post by Bandit »


User avatar
Skynet
Site Admin
Posts: 2070
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:54 am

Re: Remembering a legend.

Post by Skynet »

Andy Dick can go fuck himself

User avatar
Big Boss Man
Wrestling Mod
Posts: 5385
Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 3:12 am

Re: Remembering a legend.

Post by Big Boss Man »







A genuinely funny guy, a real sad loss for comedy when his life was tragically cut short. Troy McClure & Lionel Hutz still are among the best Simpsons characters in my opinion.

Post Reply