Jan Hooks

Janet Vivian Hooks (April 23, 1957 – October 9, 2014) was an American actress and comedienne, best known for her work on "Saturday Night Live", where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991, and continued making cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work included a regular role on the final two seasons of "Designing Women", a recurring role on "3rd Rock from the Sun," and a number of other film and television roles, including on Tina Fey’s NBC show "30 Rock" and "The Simpsons".
Early life.
Hooks was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, where she attended Canby Lane Elementary School and Towers High School. In 1974, her junior year, she moved to Fort Myers, Florida when her father, a Sears employee, was transferred there. She attended Cypress Lake High School, made her stage debut in a play there, and graduated in 1975. She attended Edison State College where she majored in theatre, but opted to leave it to pursue acting full-time.
Career.
Hooks began her career as a member of the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe The Groundlings and in an Atlanta nightclub act called The Wits End Players.
From 1980 to 1981, she appeared in "Tush" on Ted Turner's television station WTBS, which eventually became TBS. She gained attention in the early 1980s on the HBO comedy series "Not Necessarily the News" and made guest appearances on "Comedy Break with Mack & Jamie" in the mid-1980s. She made her film debut in "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" as a know-it-all tour guide at the Alamo and appeared in the Goldie Hawn film Wildcats.
Hooks had auditioned for "Saturday Night Live" in 1984 and 1985, but was passed over in favor of Pamela Stephenson and Joan Cusack. After the show's 1985–1986 season was deemed a ratings disaster and the show was put on the chopping block for cancellation, producer Lorne Michaels offered Hooks a contract along with fellow new recruits Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon. They helped lead the show to a sustained ratings increase and a return to the national spotlight. Hooks' characters included Candy Sweeney of "The Sweeney Sisters". She performed notable impressions of Bette Davis, Ann-Margret, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Sinéad O'Connor, Drew Barrymore, Tammy Faye Bakker, Kathie Lee Gifford, Kitty Dukakis, Diane Sawyer and Hillary Clinton.
Tiring of the stress of performing on a live show, Hooks left "SNL" in 1991 after being asked by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason to replace Jean Smart on the CBS sitcom "Designing Women". Hooks played the role of Carlene Dobber for the final two seasons of the show. She continued to make occasional appearances on "SNL" through 1994, usually playing Hillary Clinton.
Hooks continued working in supporting roles and guest appearances for several years, but with declining frequency. She had a recurring role as the trashy Vicki Dubcek on "3rd Rock from the Sun", which earned Hooks an Emmy Award nomination. She guest-starred on two Matt Groening-produced cartoons for the Fox Broadcasting Company: six episodes of "The Simpsons" between 1997 and 2002, as Apu's wife Manjula (although Tress MacNeille sometimes substituted for her, and eventually replaced her), and in "Futurama" (in the episode "Bendless Love", as the voice of a female robot named Angleyne). She starred as Dixie Glick in the series "Primetime Glick" and the movie "Jiminy Glick in Lalawood". She had small parts in several other movies, including "Batman Returns" as Jen, the Penguin's image consultant during his campaign to become Mayor of Gotham City. She made two appearances on "30 Rock" in 2010 playing Jenna Maroney's mother, Verna, which ultimately were the last live-action spots Hooks ever did. She guest starred in a 2013 episode of "The Cleveland Show" called "Mr. and Mrs. Brown", which was her final acting job.
According to a 2014 Grantland article about her career and death, Hooks' combination of anxiety about acting and passive approach to her career led to her missing out on prestigious auditions and lucrative acting roles. Tina Fey commented after her death that she was angry that Hooks didn't have a more successful career (Fey said that Hooks was a bigger star on "SNL" than Rob Schneider and should have had at least as big a film career as he did). However, Hooks' friend, film critic Ann Hornaday said that Hooks didn't have doors slammed in her face and often made no effort to seek out work. Hooks turned down a role in the 2003 television film The Music Man (which went to Molly Shannon instead) and declined to reprise her "SNL" sketch "The Sweeney Sisters" with Nora Dunn in a special appearance at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Hooks' friend Bill Tush speculated that her drinking had made her indifferent towards her career, but also said she may not have wanted any more money or fame. Another friend of Hooks said that she had decided only to work enough to maintain her Screen Actors Guild health insurance.
Death.
Hooks had been advised by her doctor to stop drinking due to liver damage, but did not attempt to quit. She was diagnosed with leukemia in February 2009, which was treated and went into remission that May. In April 2014, she discovered a bump on her throat. She was given a biopsy and treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, but the tumor was unresponsive to chemotherapy and continued to grow. Doctors said the only remaining option was a total laryngectomy, which Hooks declined. She arranged for hospice care and used prescription drugs, wine and cigarettes to manage her pain. She wrote in an email, "...my dependence on wine and cigarettes increases. Oh the irony! The things that soothe you mentally and spiritually destroy you physically. It’s so unfair." Her ability to speak, eat and breathe declined. Soon after watching Late Show with David Letterman with her brother Tom at her home in Woodstock, New York, Hooks succumbed to her throat cancer and died on October 9, 2014 at the age of 57. Her remains were interred in Northview Cemetery in Cedartown, Georgia.
"The Simpsons" episode "Super Franchise Me" memorialized her on October 12, 2014, with her longtime character Manjula Nahasapeemapetilon honored in the credits.
"Love Is a Dream".
"SNL" paid tribute to Hooks in the third episode of its 40th season on October 11, 2014. Guest host Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig introduced a tribute in which "SNL" re-aired a short she had filmed with Phil Hartman in 1988 for "SNL"s 14th season, titled "Love Is a Dream." This short film had also been repeated to honor Hartman following his death in 1998. It is described as "a sweet and melodramatic tribute to the 1948 film "The Emperor Waltz"", which was directed by Billy Wilder and starred Bing Crosby and Joan Fontaine. The scene casts Hooks as an aging woman who vanishes into her own imagination to sing and share a dance with a long-lost lover (Hartman). Hooks and Hartman appear to lip sync to the original singing voices from the 1948 film. One critic noted that the "Jan Hooks tribute showed that Jan did not need to be funny in order to captivate the attention of her audience."