Gilda Radner Biography

Born to a rich Jewish family, Radner was very close to her father, who died when she was 12, breaking her heart. A fat child, she was an anorexic and bulimic young teenager. She overcame these disorders by 16, though her weight continued to fluctuate considerably throughout her life.

Dropping out of university, and spurning the typical social antics of girls of her background, Radner joined an improvisational troupe in Toronto, where she worked with John Belushi who became one of her best friends and collaborators. The pair moved to New York and performed on the 'National Lampoon Radio Show'.

Radner was cast in a new show 'Saturday Night Live' in 1975. The series was a success and Radner quickly established herself as one of its most versatile cast. Favourite characters were Emily Litella, the deaf media critic based on her childhood nanny, the perpetually loud and frizzy haired TV journalist Roseanne Roseanna-Dana, and Baba Waba a talk show host with a speech impediment.

She developed her own Broadway show in 1979, then in 1980 bowed out of the theatre to work on films. She married actor Gene Wilder the same year.

Shortly afterwards, Radner started having pains in her legs; she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Chemotherapy followed and for awhile she was in remission and wrote her autobiography 'Its Always Something'.

Cancer returned to her ovaries, there was nothing more the doctors could do. Radner remained optimistic and funny till the end. She died in her sleep in 1989.