Canadian stand-up comedian, writer, and actor Norm Macdonald passed away on Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 61. A prominent cast member on Saturday Night Live (SNL) for five years, Macdonald, known for his deadpan data-style of comedy, had been battling the disease privately for nearly a decade. Several comedians like Conan O' Brien, Jim Gaffigan, Jon Stewart, Ron Funches, Seth Rogen, including actor Jim Carrey paid their tributes to Macdonald calling him "one of the greatest comedians to have ever lived," on social media.
Norm Macdonald started his career in the entertainment industry as a writer on Roseanne in 1992 after performing at comedy clubs in Canada. He then joined Saturday Night Live (SNL) in 1993 and was the Weekend Update anchor from the next year until early 1998. Known for his dry humor and impersonations of Burt Reynolds, David Letterman, Larry King, Quentin Tarantino and many others, Macdonald was a powerhouse on the show. During his five-year run on SNL, Macdonald delivered one of the most memorable jokes about O.J. Simpson’s acquittal and said, “Well, it is finally official: Murder is legal in the state of California.” Post his exit from SNL, Macdonald created The Norm Show with Bruce Helford on ABC, which ran from 1999 until 2001.
Outside of his work on television, Norm Macdonald appeared in films like Billy Madison, The People vs. Larry Flynt, Man on the Moon to name a notable few. Apart from starring in live-action films, Macdonald voiced the character Lucky in the Dr. Dolittle films and Mogens on the Netflix-animated venture Klaus in 2019.