LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) — Norm Macdonald, a comedian, comedy writer and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member has died. He was 61.
According to Deadline, the comedian had been privately battling cancer for nine years and succumbed to the disease.
“He was most proud of his comedy,” MacDonald’s longtime friend and production partner Lori Hoekstra told Deadline. “He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”
Born and raised in Quebec City, MacDonald began performing standup in Ottawa in the early 1980s. He was hired as a writer for the “Roseanne” show for the 1992–93 season, but jumped ship when he landed a role at “Saturday Night Live.”
MacDonald joined the cast for the 19th season and took over SNL’s long-running ‘Weekend Update’ segment the following year and continued in that role until he was replaced by Colin Quinn in 1998.
After leaving SNL in 1999, MacDonald was featured in a sitcom, The Norm Show, which aired for 3 seasons on ABC. He also co-wrote and starred in the comedy Dirty Work and appeared in numerous television roles.
Macdonald launched Norm Macdonald Live, a podcast series co-hosted by Adam Eget in 2013 and unsuccessfully campaigned to be named the host of The Late Late Show after then-host Craig Ferguson announced he was stepping away from the show.
He also landed a talk show gig on Netflix in 2018, appearing in 10 episode on the streaming platform in 2018.
In 1988, Macdonald married Connie Vaillancourt, with whom he had a son, Dylan, born 1993. The couple separated in April 1999.
