Entertainer, born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. After working with the Second City comedy troupe, she appeared on the National Lampoon Radio Hour in 1974. On National Broadcasting Company's Saturday Night Live (197580), she created zany characters whom she brought to Broadway in Gilda Radner Live from New York (1979). In 1989 she wrote It's Always Something about the ovarian cancer that ended her life prematurely. She was married to Gene Wilder.
Gilda Susan Radner (28 June 1946 – 20 May 1989) was an American comedian and actress, best known for her five years as part of the original cast of the NBC comedy series Saturday Night Live. Radner, who died at 42 of ovarian cancer, became an icon for public awareness of both detection and treatment of the disease.
Biography
Early life
Born to well-to-do Jewish-American parents, Herman Radner and Henrietta Dworkin, in Detroit, Michigan, Radner graduated from the prestigious University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe in 1964, and then studied drama at the University of Michigan, where she began her broadcasting career as the weather girl for college radio station WCBN.
1970s
Radner was a featured player on the National Lampoon Radio Hour, a half-hour comedy program syndicated to some 600 U.S. radio stations from 1973 to 1975.
She first rose to widespread fame as one of the original "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" on Saturday Night Live. (Radner was the first actor cast for the show.) Between 1975 and 1980 she created such characters as Roseanne Roseannadanna (an obnoxious woman with wild black hair who would always tell stories about celebrities' gross habits on Weekend Update. Radner's first appearance as this character was not on Weekend Update, but a fake commercial called "Hire the Incompetent" about a temp agency that hires semi- and inexperienced workers for other companies);
Radner projected an innocence into her lines that wouldn't have worked with other performers. Radner had a knack for combining extreme physical comedy with soft, caring characters that were easy to love. (There is a legend that Radner broke several ribs during one comedy sketch that required her to slam herself against a door repeatedly, but the next day she went on as scheduled.) Radner also battled bulimia during her time on the show (she once told a reporter that she had thrown up in every toilet in New York City), and had a relationship with co-star Bill Murray, which ended badly. In 1979, incoming NBC President Fred Silverman offered Radner her own prime time variety show, which she ultimately turned down.
1980s
In her final season of Saturday Night Live, Radner appeared on Broadway in a successful one-woman show that featured racier material, such as the humorous song "Let's Talk Dirty to the Animals".
She spent most of the next decade keeping a surprisingly low profile, aside from appearances in such films as Hanky Panky, The Woman in Red, and Haunted Honeymoon. In the late 1980s, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Even with the support of her second husband, actor Gene Wilder, whom she had met while co-starring with him in Hanky Panky (she had previously been married to Saturday Night Live band leader G.E. The book was written by Radner in tribute to cancer sufferers everywhere, and she used humor to overcome tragedy and pain.
In 1988 she guest-starred as herself on It's Garry Shandling's Show to great critical acclaim. (When Garry asked her why she had not been seen for awhile, Radner replied "Oh, I had cancer. She wanted to host the next year, but in 1989 doctors found that her cancer had recurred and had spread to other areas of her body.
After Death
Wilder has since established the Gilda Radner Ovarian Detection Center at Cedars-Sinai to screen high-risk candidates (such as women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent) and run basic diagnostic tests. He testified before a Congressional committee that her condition was misdiagnosed and that if doctors had inquired more deeply into her family background they would have found numerous cases of ovarian cancer and might have attacked the disease earlier. Through these efforts and the efforts of others, ovarian cancer awareness has spread, and there is more widespread awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer.
Wilder continued his involvement in both detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. In tribute to Radner, Gilda's Club was founded.
In 1992, Radner was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame for her achievements in arts and entertainment.
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