SNL alum Norm Macdonald dies after secret 9-year battle with cancer

G. Gordon Gator

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Loved this guy's dry sense of humor. IMO he was very funny as the Weekend Update anchor on SNL and in other places he showed up during his career as a comic and actor. Nobody knew he'd been struggling with cancer for 9 years.

RIP, Norm. And Fuchs cancer.

'SNL' alum Norm Macdonald dead at 61

Norm Macdonald, known for his time on "Saturday Night Live," has died, Fox News can confirm. He was 61 years old.

According to Deadline, the comedian had been privately battling cancer for nine years.

Macdonald's longtime producing partner and friend Lori Jo Hoekstra was reportedly at his side when he passed.

"He was most proud of his comedy," 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."


GettyImages-915919322.jpg

Norm Macdonald during the 'Weekend Update' skit on April 12, 1997. (Mary Ellen Matthews/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)


Macdonald started as a writer on "Roseanne" in 1992 and then became an "SNL" cast member in 1993 until 1999. He famously anchored the show's Weekend Update sketch for three seasons and was replaced by Colin Quinn.

After leaving "SNL," Macdonald had his own comedy show, "The Norm Show," from 1999-2001 on ABC and later had his own talk show on Netflix for one season in 2018.
 

Gatordiddy

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Loved this guy's dry sense of humor. IMO he was very funny as the Weekend Update anchor on SNL and in other places he showed up during his career as a comic and actor. Nobody knew he'd been struggling with cancer for 9 years.

RIP, Norm. And Fuchs cancer.

'SNL' alum Norm Macdonald dead at 61

Norm Macdonald, known for his time on "Saturday Night Live," has died, Fox News can confirm. He was 61 years old.

According to Deadline, the comedian had been privately battling cancer for nine years.

Macdonald's longtime producing partner and friend Lori Jo Hoekstra was reportedly at his side when he passed.

"He was most proud of his comedy," 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."


GettyImages-915919322.jpg

Norm Macdonald during the 'Weekend Update' skit on April 12, 1997. (Mary Ellen Matthews/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)


Macdonald started as a writer on "Roseanne" in 1992 and then became an "SNL" cast member in 1993 until 1999. He famously anchored the show's Weekend Update sketch for three seasons and was replaced by Colin Quinn.

After leaving "SNL," Macdonald had his own comedy show, "The Norm Show," from 1999-2001 on ABC and later had his own talk show on Netflix for one season in 2018.

My son texted me about this earlier this afternoon - very sad.
 

ThreatMatrix

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Wow. Had no idea.
Norm was a comedians comedian. The king of the setup and swerve.
Norm was famously fired from weekend update by NBC executive Don Ohmmeyer because Norm kept doing jokes about Don's friend OJ Simpson. He was asked to stop but instead he did even more OJ jokes.
 

g8tr72

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RIP

A private battle with cancer is so rare these days amongst celebs. Fighting it outside the public eye is commendable.
 

Nalt

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Never heard of him. But I haven't watched SNL in many years because they just stopped being funny.
 

Gatordiddy

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in the replies:

“I.D…. that’s kind of a weird abbreviation don’t you think? The I… stands for I. And the D… stands for, dentification. Now it seems like D is doing most of the heavy lifting there.”
 

ThreatMatrix

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Never heard of him. But I haven't watched SNL in many years because they just stopped being funny.
You're missing out on Norm. He worked without a net.
He was best live when he was just riffing. He'd start telling a story and not even he knew where it was going but would nail it in the end. One of the most well respected comedians amongst his peers.
 

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