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Phil Hartman
Birth name	Philip Edward Hartmann
Born	September 24, 1948 Brantford, Ontario
Died	May 28, 1998 at age 49 Encino, California
Notable roles	Various Characters and Impressions on NBC's Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1994 Bill McNeal in NewsRadio Ted Maltin in Jingle All the Way Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz in The Simpsons

Phil Hartman (born as Philip Edward Hartmann) (September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998) was an Emmy-winning Canadian/American graphic artist, writer, actor, voice artist, and comedian.

He first came to widespread attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s for his roles on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, afterwards going on to motion pictures, frequent roles on the animated The Simpsons, and a major part as "Bill McNeal" on the sitcom NewsRadio.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Early career 1.3 Television career 1.4 Secondary film roles 1.5 Death 1.5.1 Response 1.6 Family 1.7 Simpsons roles 2 Filmography 3 Footnotes 4 External links

Hartman was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada to Doris M. and Rupert L. Hartmann. His family emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, and Hartman attended Redondo Union High School and Cal State Northridge in Los Angeles, California, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen in the early-1990s. The exact timing of his switch from "Hartmann" to "Hartman" is unknown, but all of his acting credits after 1986 were billed under the surname "Hartman".

Looking for what he described as "a psychological release valve", he joined the California-based comedy group The Groundlings in 1975. Hartman met comedian Paul Reubens while working with the group and the two became friends, often writing and working on material together. One such collaboration was the character of Pee-wee Herman and the script of the feature film Pee-wee's Big Adventure. Hartman also met Jon Lovitz while with The Groundlings. Hartman was fluent in German, and a video circulated once of him doing a standup routine in the language.

Hartman worked part time as a graphic artist, including designing album covers for popular rock bands. Hartman's covers include:

• Steely Dan's 1977 album Aja
• Poco's 1978 album Legend
• Firesign Theatre's 1980 album Fighting Clowns (photo)
• Three album covers for the band America

He also designed Crosby, Stills & Nash's logo.

In 1986, Hartman joined the cast of NBC's popular variety show Saturday Night Live and stayed for eight seasons, which was a record at the time. Hartman was known for his impressions, which included Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Frank Sinatra, Telly Savalas, Ed McMahon, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson, Barbara Bush, Burt Reynolds, Phil Donahue, and former president Bill Clinton, which was perhaps his best-known impression. His other Saturday Night Live characters included Frankenstein's monster and Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. He returned twice to host the show following his 1994 departure and was honored at the show's 25th anniversary special in 1999 by the members of the cast who worked with him: Jan Hooks, Nora Dunn, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Jon Lovitz, Mike Myers, and Victoria Jackson.

Also in 1986, Hartman reprised his role as Captain Carl, one of Pee-Wee Herman's close friends and famed sea captain in the first season of Pee-Wee's Playhouse. He left after the 13th episode. He also lent his voice to the cartoon version of Dennis the Menace, playing Henry Mitchell (Dennis' father).

From 1991 to 1998, Hartman also provided the voices for a number of characters on the popular animated series The Simpsons, including dubious attorney Lionel Hutz, B-movie actor Troy McClure, Bart's "bigger brother" Tom, and slippery monorail shyster Lyle Lanley; Hartman expressed interest in making a live action version of Troy McClure, but the film was never made due to his death. In the episode "Selma's Choice", he lent his voice to five different characters, including McClure and Hutz.

In 1994, Hartman left SNL. His last scene on Saturday Night Live consisted of him consoling Chris Farley (who was dressed as his Matt Foley character). Hartman's next project was to be a self-titled network variety show; after Dana Carvey announced plans for his own variety show, Hartman instead cast his eye on a more standard sitcom. In 1995, he became one of the stars of the NBC sitcom NewsRadio, where he portrayed fatuous radio news anchor Bill McNeal. Many have attributed the cancellation of the show to Hartman's death, citing that the humor was thrown off balance despite the casting of Lovitz (who replaced Hartman). Ironically in two episodes of NewsRadio Hartman’s character was one of only two to survive tragedies. He makes mention several times of a girlfriend who is unstable and who tries to kill him. He also believes he is being stalked by strangers including a man dressed as Santa Claus. In one episode a psychic tells Bill the date of his death, his 82nd birthday.

Before his death, Hartman was also set to play the character of Zapp Brannigan on Futurama, but died before production started. As a result, Billy West inherited the role instead.

Hartman's filmography includes often secondary or supporting roles in such feature films as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Greedy, Houseguest, Coneheads, Stuart Saves His Family (voice only), Sgt. Bilko, So I Married an Axe Murderer, CB4, Jingle All the Way and Small Soldiers, the last of which would become his final silver screen appearance and was thus dedicated to him. His last role was in the English version of Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, where he provided the voice of Jiji the cat. The English dub of the movie was dedicated to his memory.

Hartman was murdered by his wife, Brynn, on May 28, 1998, in his Encino, California home. While Phil slept in his bed, Brynn came into the bedroom with a revolver and shot him in the temple, killing him. Brynn then reportedly drove to the home of Ron Douglas, a friend of hers, and said "I shot Phil," after which she passed out. It is believed that Douglas was skeptical until he found the weapon nestled within her handbag. When Brynn reawakened, she drove the pair back to Phil's house, where Douglas saw Phil's lifeless body. The emergency services were then informed.

Upon arriving, the police attempted to empty the premises of Hartman's two young children and Ron Douglas was also asked to leave. During this time, it is believed that Brynn entered the bedroom and committed suicide by shooting herself once through the temple.

There were no signs of a struggle. Hartman was found wearing shorts and a T-shirt, lying sideways on the bed. His wife lay next to him with a gunshot wound to her head. Relatives of the Hartmans released the following statement:

"Phil and Brynn were a loving couple, devoted to each other and their children. This tragedy is not indicative of who she was or who they were together."

Phil Hartman directed in his will that he be cremated. His ashes were scattered over Santa Catalina Island's Emerald Bay. It was further agreed that the first guardian who agreed to take care of Sean and Birgen would be awarded $50,000. According to the executor of Hartman's estate, Zoloft manufacturer Pfizer Inc. and Brynn Hartman's psychiatrist, Arthur Sorosky, were at fault for Hartman's death. A wrongful death suit would be filed against them both.

Hartman was mourned greatly in Hollywood. NewsRadio produced a special episode where the cast tearfully mourned the death of Hartman's on-screen counterpart. Jon Lovitz joined the show in his place and stayed with it until its ultimate cancellation. Lovitz had been a Saturday Night Live cast member alongside Hartman for four seasons, and had also worked with Hartman when they both had cameos in the 1986 comedy Three Amigos. Lovitz and Hartman's former SNL colleagues—Jan Hooks, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson, and Mike Myers—also gave him an emotional remembrance at the SNL 25th Anniversary show in 2000. Hartman's nickname, coined by Adam Sandler, according to Jay Mohr's book Gasping for Airtime was "Glue", because of his way of working well with everyone, and keeping many episodes together. Hartman was widely praised for his efforts to help new writers and castmembers, as well as his professionalism on and off the set.

Out of respect, the writers on The Simpsons retired Hartman's characters, rather than finding another voice actor. The episode "Bart the Mother" marked his final appearance on the show, and was dedicated to him. On audio commentary tracks accompanying The Simpsons DVD releases, the appearance of a Hartman character uniformly evokes heartfelt praise from the writers, show runners, directors, and creators, et al., who are commenting. A number of major Simpsons players talk at length about their experience of Hartman as a rare combination of professionalism, effortless comedic facility, friendliness, and decency. The most frequent commentators often spoke of their practice to write a Hartman character into episodes whenever possible, simply to get him into the studio. On at least one occasion, the writers commenting say that they considered bringing Hartman in as a form of "cheating", as his voice acting could mine humor out of even a mediocre script. Hartman's death is mentioned by the writers only in the course of explaining that replacing him with another voice actor was not considered.

Hartman was appearing in a cliffhanger on the series 3rd Rock from the Sun at the time of his death. His character did not appear in the second episode of the cliffhanger.

At the time of his death, Hartman was preparing to voice Zapp Brannigan, a character on Simpsons creator Matt Groening's other animated series Futurama. Groening wrote the character specifically for him, but Hartman had nonetheless insisted on auditioning. After he died, the lead character, Philip J. Fry, was named in his honor. Billy West (the voice of Fry, among many other Futurama characters) took his place. West's original audition characterization formed the basis for Brannigan's voice, but by coincidence his portrayal bears many similarities to Hartman's own vocal stylings. West later admitted that he purposefully tweaked Zapp's voice to better match Hartman's portrayal out of respect.

Hartman was posthumously nominated for an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Bill McNeal in NewsRadio, but lost out to actor David Hyde Pierce. Upon learning Hartman did not win the award, NewsRadio co-star Dave Foley joked "What's this guy gotta do to win an Emmy?".

Hartman and his wife Brynn had two children, Sean Edward Hartman (born 1987) and Birgen Hartman (born 1992). His children are being raised in Minnesota by Brynn's sister and brother-in-law, who are unable to have children of their own. As guardians of Sean and Birgen, they were awarded $50,000 per Phil Hartman's will.^[1] In May 2000, the Hartman children were awarded more than $10,000 each in a wrongful death suit. Per Phil Hartman's will, each will receive a third of their inheritance when they reach age 25 (or obtain a bachelor's degree from a four-year accredited university). They get half their inheritance when they turn thirty, and the remainder of Phil Hartman's assets when they turn 35.^[2]

His appearances on The Simpsons were:

• Season 2: "Bart Gets Hit By a Car", "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment", "Old Money".
• Season 3: "Bart the Murderer", "Saturdays of Thunder", "Flaming Moe's", "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk", "Lisa the Greek", "Homer Alone", "Bart's Friend Falls in Love".
• Season 4: "A Streetcar Named Marge", "Marge Gets a Job", "New Kid on the Block", "Mr. Plow", "Marge vs. the Monorail", "Selma's Choice", "Brother from the Same Planet", "Duffless", "Marge in Chains".
• Season 5: "Treehouse of Horror IV", "Marge on the Lam", "Bart's Inner Child", "The Last Temptation of Homer", "Burns' Heir", "The Boy Who Knew Too Much", "Lady Bouvier's Lover", "Secrets of a Successful Marriage".
• Season 6: "Another Simpsons Clip Show", "Sideshow Bob Roberts", "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy", "Bart vs. Australia", "A Star is Burns", "Lisa's Wedding", "'Round Springfield", "The Springfield Connection".
• Season 7: "Radioactive Man", "Lisa the Vegetarian", "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", "Marge Be Not Proud", "Bart the Fink", "Lisa the Iconoclast", "The Day the Violence Died", "A Fish Called Selma", "22 Short Films About Springfield".
• Season 8: "Treehouse of Horror VII", "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", "The Simpsons Spin-off Showcase".
• Season 9: "Lisa the Skeptic", "Realty Bites", "All Singing, All Dancing", "Das Bus", "Lisa the Simpson", "This Little Wiggy".
• Season 10: "Bart the Mother".

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1998	Kiki's Delivery Service	Jiji
	Buster & Chauncey's Silent Night	Additional Voices
	Small Soldiers	Phil Fimple	Last Live Action Movie before death
1998	Blasto (Game)	Capt. Blasto
1997	The Second Civil War	The President
1996	Jingle All the Way	Ted Maltin
	Sgt. Bilko	Major Colin Thorn
1995	Stuart Saves His Family	Announcer
	The Crazysitter	The Salesman
	Houseguest	Gary Young
1994	The Pagemaster	Tom Morgan
	Greedy	Frank
1993	So I Married an Axe Murderer	John 'Vicky' Johnson
	Coneheads	Marlax
	CB4	Virgil Robinson
	Loaded Weapon 1	Officer Davis
1990	Quick Change	Hal Edison
1989	How I Got Into College	Bennedict (SAT Coach)
	Fletch Lives	Bly Manager
	The Simpsons	Lionel Hutz, Troy McClure
1987	Amazon Women on the Moon	Baseball Announcer
	The Brave Little Toaster	Air Conditioner/Hanging Lamp
	Blind Date	Ted Davis
1986	Three Amigos	Sam
	Jumpin' Jack Flash	Fred
	Last Resort	Jean-Michel
1985	Pee-wee's Big Adventure	Reporter
1984	Weekend Pass	Joe Chicago
1982	Pandemonium	Reporter
1980	Cheech & Chong's Next Movie	Actor in a movie being filmed in the background
	The Gong Show Movie	Man at Airport with Gun

• Phil Hartman Photos
• Phil Hartman at the Internet Movie Database
• Rotten Library - Phil Hartman
• John Hartmann Speaks Out On Phil Hartman's Murder And The Hartman Children
• Find A Death Info On Phil's Death
• Frank's Info On Phil's Death

Persondata
NAME	Hartman, Phil
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hartmann, Philip Edward
SHORT DESCRIPTION	actor, comedian
DATE OF BIRTH	September 24, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brantford, Ontario
DATE OF DEATH	May 28, 1998
PLACE OF DEATH	Encino, California