Laraine Newman and Jane Curtin made sure Gilda Radner was honored at the SNL50: The Anniversary Special.
As cast members past and present squeezed together on stage at the end of the celebration, viewers spotted the the actresses holding up a photo of Radner. The three were the only women in the original cast of Saturday Night Live and starred alongside Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, George Coe, Garrett Morris and Michael O’Donoghue.
For five seasons, Radner entertained audiences with iconic characters like Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Baba Wawa, Lisa Loopner and many more. Her work on the show even garnered her an Emmy Award in 1978.
Radner left the show in 1980 to pursue acting in movies. At the time, she was married to SNL band leader G. E. Smith.
In 1982, Radner starred alongside her future husband, the late Gene Wilder, in Hanky Panky. The two married in 1984 and went on to act in two more films together: The Woman in Red (1984) and Haunted Honeymoon (1986). The two remained married through Radner’s death of ovarian cancer at 42 in 1989.
“If Saturday Night Live was like Never-Never-Land, the Island of Lost Boys, she was Tinker Bell,” Anne Beatts, the show’s former head writer, told PEOPLE at the time of her death. “She just hadn’t lost touch with the child in her.”
Saturday Night Live has been known to produce some of Hollywood’s funniest comedians in its five decades on air.
Though the iconic sketch show has endured 50 years of laughs, tears and zingers, fans have also said goodbye to some of its most beloved cast members.
Some of the show’s notable losses have included John Belushi, Chris Farley, Glida Radner and Andy Kaufman. In recent years, the SNL family has also lost Norm Macdonald, Peter Aykroyd, Gilbert Gottfried and Dan Vitale.
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SNL50: The Anniversary Special aired live on Sunday, Feb. 16, on NBC and Peacock.
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