Phil Hartman was born on September 24, 1948, in Branford, Ontario, Canada, the son of Doris Margarite and Robert Hartman. When he was ten, his family moved to the United States. After high school, he studied art at Santa Monica City College. His first marriage, to Gretchen Lewis, did not last long.

In 1972, Hartman returned to school at California State University, where he studied graphic arts. He started his own graphic art business and created more than forty album covers, including the logo for the band Crosby, Stills and Nash. In 1975, Hartman made his first television appearance on The Dating Game. Around the same time, he began taking comedy classes with the Groundlings, an improvisational comedy group based in Los Angeles.

After years of training, he formally joined the troupe, and by 1979 he had become one of its stars. It was at the Groundlings that Hartman met Paul Reubens. The two often collaborated on comedic material, and together they created the character Pee-wee Herman. They developed the Pee-wee Herman stage show, which aired on HBO in 1981.

Hartman played Captain Carl on the Pee-wee Herman show and later returned to the role for the children’s series Pee-wee’s Playhouse. He also co-wrote the script for the 1985 feature film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and had a small role as a reporter in the movie. After a creative disagreement with Reubens, Hartman left the Pee-wee Herman project to pursue other roles. Hartman then turned to voiceover work, appearing in animated series such as The Smurfs, Challenge of the GoBots, and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

He voiced characters Henry Mitchell and George Wilson on the animated Dennis the Menace series. In 1986, he appeared in the films Jumpin’ Jack Flash and ¡Three Amigos! He also became a cast member of Saturday Night Live. Over eight seasons with the show, Hartman became known for his impressions and performed more than seventy different characters.

Using a baseball analogy, he was the great utility player for SNL: he could do it all. His original SNL characters included Eugene the Anal Retentive Chef and the unfrozen caveman lawyer. His impressions included Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Ed McMahon, Barbara Bush, Charlton Heston, Phil Donahue, and, most famously, Bill Clinton. In 1989, Hartman won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding writing for a variety, music, or comedy program for SNL, sharing the award with the show’s other writers.

Hartman left Saturday Night Live in 1994. He provided the voices for numerous characters on the Fox animated series The Simpsons, appearing in fifty-two episodes. In 1995, he became one of the stars of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, portraying radio news anchor Bill McNeal. Hartman had married a former model and aspiring actress named Brynn Omdahl in November 1987, and the couple had two children.

The marriage was difficult from early on. According to accounts from the time, Brynn was reportedly jealous of Phil’s success and was often verbally and physically abusive. She even sent a letter to one of Hartman’s ex-wives, threatening to rip her eyes out if she spoke to him again. Hartman considered retiring from his career to save the marriage.

He tried to get Brynn acting roles, but she became progressively more reliant on drugs and alcohol, entering rehab several times. On multiple occasions, Hartman had to remove their children from the household and take them to stay with friends or family because of Brynn’s outbursts. On May 27, 1998, Brynn and Phil had an argument, after which Phil went to bed. Sometime before 3:00 a.

m. on May 28, 1998, Brynn entered the bedroom and, under the influence of drugs and alcohol, fatally shot him three times: once between the eyes, once in the throat, and once in the upper chest. He was only forty-nine years old. After the shooting, Brynn drove to the home of a friend and confessed to the killing.

At first, the friend did not believe her, until they drove to Hartman’s house. Upon seeing Hartman’s body, he called 911 at 6:20 a. m. When police arrived, Brynn had locked herself in the bedroom.

Shortly after, she took her own life by shooting herself. Phil Hartman was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over Santa Catalina Island.