Janet Vivian Hooks (April 23, 1957 – October 9, 2014) was an American actress and comedian. She was best known for her tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991. After leaving SNL, she continued to make cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work included a regular role on the last 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 30 Rock and The Simpsons. She died of complications of throat cancer on October 9, 2014 at the age of 57.
Contents
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 area, when her father, a Sears employee, was transferred. She attended Cypress Lake High School, in Ft. Myers, Florida, made her stage debut in a play there, and graduated in 1975. She attended Edison State College (known today as Florida SouthWestern State College) where she majored in theatre, but left 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 Wit's End Players, a continuation of the Dick Van Dyke and Phil Erickson troupe Merry Mutes, which also included Joanne Daniels.
From 1980 to 1981, Hooks appeared in Bill Tush's Tush on Ted Turner's television station, WTBS, which eventually became TBS.
In 1983, Victoria Jackson, Arsenio Hall, Vic Dunlop, Barry Diamond, John Moschitta Jr., John Paragon, and Hooks appeared on Dick Clark's and Chris Bearde's short-lived NBC series The 1/2 Hour Comedy Hour.
In 1983-1984, Hooks gained attention on the HBO comedy series Not Necessarily the News and made guest appearances on Comedy Tonight and the 1985 syndicated TV show Comedy Break with Mack & Jamie, with Kevin Pollak. In 1985, she made her film debut in Pee-wee's Big Adventure as a tour guide at the Alamo. She would later appear in the Goldie Hawn film Wildcats (1986).
In 1985, Hooks met with producer Lorne Michaels about a spot on Saturday Night Live, but was passed over in favor of Joan Cusack. After the show's 1985–86 season was deemed a ratings disaster and the show was slated for cancellation, Michaels offered Hooks another chance. This time, despite a six-minute audition she called "brutal", she was offered a contract along with fellow new recruits Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon for the show's 1986–87 season. They helped lead the show to a sustained ratings increase and a return to the national spotlight. Hooks's characters included Candy Sweeney of the Sweeney Sisters. She also played famous political wives of the era, including Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Kitty Dukakis, Betty Ford, and Elizabeth Dole, and did notable impressions of Bette Davis, Sinéad O'Connor, Tammy Faye Bakker, Ivana Trump, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Diane Sawyer.
I had a huge ego. I just loved anybody that wanted me to show my stuff. I will do it. Oh man, let me go out there and show my stuff. And in my mid-twenties, it kind of hit that it wasn't a hobby anymore, that it was my vocation, that I had to do this in order to live. And that shaded it in a whole different way. It made me afraid, you know....The show changed my life, obviously. But I have horrible stage fright. And with all these, you know, stand-up comics who I love — you know, Dana and Dennis and Kevin and all these people — you know they wanted their shot, they wanted to get in there and do it, but I was one of the ones that between dress and air was sitting in the corner going, "Please cut everything I'm in!" — Jan Hooks, in Live From New York (2002/2014)
Personal life
Hooks was dating Kevin Nealon when they were both hired by Saturday Night Live.
Death
Hooks was diagnosed with leukemia in February 2009, which was treated over several months and went into remission that May. In April 2014, Hooks discovered a bump on her throat. A biopsy confirmed she had throat cancer, and Hooks was treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The tumor was deemed 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 the pain. Her ability to speak, eat, and breathe declined.
Hooks died of throat cancer complications on October 9, 2014, at age 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, "Love Is a Dream". This short film had also been re-aired 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 wrote that the "Jan Hooks tribute showed that Jan did not need to be funny in order to captivate the attention of her audience", as Hooks and Hartman were known to be quiet and reserved off screen.