TOP 10: Stars You Forgot Were “Saturday Night Live” Cast Members
NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” is currently celebrating its 50th season, and this weekend, Jason Reitman’s film retelling of the night of the show’s 1978 premiere — appropriately titled Saturday Night — arrives in theaters.
That made us want to look back at the venerable sketch show, and dig up some interesting mental floss for you. While we already did a whole episode devoted to the best “SNL” characters back in Season 7, below find our list of the Top 10 actors you probably forgot once served as cast members of the Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players.
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Honorable Mention: Julia Louis-Dreyfus (1982-1985)
While the rest of the actors on this list were one-season-and-done with “SNL” (some didn’t even make it a whole season!), Julia Louis-Dreyfus was actually on the show for THREE SEASONS, appearing opposite “SNL” luminaries Eddie Murphy, Jim Belushi, Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Joe Piscipo (you laugh, but Joe Piscipo was a hot commodity in the early 80s). Even with a decent run, you’d be hard-pressed to remember many JLD “SNL” breakout moments. In addition to TV evangelist April May June (above), her characters included *checks notes* Weather Woman and Big-Zit Cindy. That’s grim. She also impersonated virtually any brunette celebrity of the day, from Linda Ronstadt to Marie Osmond to, uh, Diana Ross? Hoo boy. Anyway, Louis-Dreyfus had the last laugh, becoming a breakout TV star on “Seinfeld” a decade later, and subsequently winning 11 Primetime Emmy Awards (eight of them for acting, most from HBO’s prescient “Veep”). She would return to host “SNL” three times since leaving.
10. Gilbert Gottfried (1980-1981)
One of the most recognizable voices in late-20th Century comedy, Gilbert Gottfried joined the cast in Season 6, but was let go after only 12 episodes following a massive cast overhaul. (As you’ll see, the 1980s were a challenging period for “SNL.”) Gottfried — who died in 2022 — would go on to have a great career, with highlights including voicing Iago in Disney’s Aladdin, a series of inescapable Subway commercials, being a regular on “Hollywood Squares,” and numerous scene-stealing cameos in movies, notably the documentary The Aristocrats.
9. Christopher Guest (1984-1985)
Christopher Guest was an “SNL” cast member for Season 10, serving as a very dry anchor for the “Saturday Night News” segment. Guest’s humor might not have been the best fit for “SNL,” but he certainly found his niche, becoming a wildly popular writer and director of mockumentary films like This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, and others. He’s now a bona fide comedy legend. And on top of that, he’s been married to Jamie Lee Curtis for decades.
8. Janeane Garofalo (1994-1995)
Although we haven’t seen too much of her lately — come back, Janeane, we love you! — Janeane Garofolo was a very big deal in the 1990s, parlaying TV roles to gigs (“The Ben Stiller Show”) into a string of movies that would be outright successes or become cult classics (Romy & Michele’s High-School Reunion, Wet Hot American Summer, Mystery Men). Janeane joined the “SNL” cast for Season 20, but quit after 14 episodes. She has been open about her disdain for her time on the show.
7. Sarah Silverman (1993-1994)
Although she would go on to be a major force in comedy in the 2000s, Sarah Silverman’s unique brand of humor didn’t really click with “SNL.” Silverman served as a Featured Player in Season 19, and often did what we now come to know as the Sarah Silverman Thing — an exaggerated girly voice, pointed jokes meant to provoke a reaction, etc. It’s not a surprise she exited after one season, nor is it surprising that she would experience massive success with her “The Sarah Silverman Program” on Comedy Central a decade or so later.
6. Joan Cusack (1985-1986)
The mid-80s were a brutal period for “SNL” casts; at the end of Season 10 (1984-1985), literally the entire cast left (or weren’t invited back), as showrunner Dick Ebersol — who took over from Lorne Michaels after Season 5 (1979-1980) — exited and Lorne Michaels returned, bringing in a whole new cast of fresh, young talent. Of the dozen regular cast members hired for Season 11, six left after one season, including Joan Cusack. Cusack had already had memorable roles in films, including a hilarious no-dialogue part in Sixteen Candles, but she achieved major film success a few years after leaving “SNL.” In short order she racked up two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl and In & Out, and would continue to score hits with Runaway Bride, Nine Months, a career-defining role in Addams Family Values, and as the voice of cowgirl Jessie in the Toy Story movies.
5. Damon Wayans (1985-1986)
Another member of the Season 11 cast — which was stacked with high-profile talent, most of which fled after one go-around — comedy legend Wayans lasted only 12 episodes before being let go for improvising on air. Of course, he’s gone on to a storied career, including returning to sketch comedy with Fox’s genre-breaking “In Living Color” from 1990 to 1993, and on several network TV series, including “My Wife & Kids,” “Lethal Weapon,” and the upcoming “Poppa’s House,” on which he stars with his son, Damon Wayans Jr. Wayans returned to “SNL” to host an episode in 1995.
4. Laurie Metcalf (1980)
Although she is now an Oscar nominee (Best Supporting Actress for Lady Bird), two-time Tony winner, and four-time Emmy winner (Best Supporting Actress for “Roseanne” and Best Guest Actress for “Hacks”), Laurie Metcalf has the dubious distinction of being one of the shortest-lived “Saturday Night Live” cast members of all time — specifically, she lasted one episode. In a pre-taped segment for “Weekend Update.” But it was not her fault! Metcalf was a victim of both behind-the-scenes drama and television writer’s strike that truncated what would have been her season. She did return to “SNL” for guest appearances, like the video above.
3. Ben Stiller (1989)
Ben Stiller is a scion of comedy royalty, the son of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. He became a comedy giant in his own right in the 1990s, after his “Ben Stiller Show” and then Reality Bites launched him to Gen X prominence, and he continued to top the box office for more than a decade with roles in There’s Something About Mary, the Meet the Parents series, the Night at the Museum series, etc. He actually had gotten work on “SNL” before he even joined the cast, but once he joined in Season 14, he only lasted four episodes before leaving. He would return to host the show in 1998 and 2011, and had a recurring role as Donald Trump’s onetime lawyer and now nemesis Michael Cohen.
2. Robert Downey, Jr. (1985-1986)
Another of the young guns to join the cast in the 85/86 season, Downey Jr. would be a one-and-done cast member that would go on to conquer Hollywood. The first time, that was via Brat Pack films like Weird Science and Less Than Zero. After a few rough years, he would find even more acclaim (and money!) as Tony Stark/Iron Man, kickstarting the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man in 2008, and reportedly pulling down a $95 million payday to return to the comic movies as, bizarrely, big bad Dr. Doom. Oh, and he won an Oscar for his supporting role in Oppenheimer. So he did alright.
Catherine O’Hara (1981)
Don’t remember Catherine O’Hara as a member of the “SNL” cast? There’s a good reason — while she has hosted the show, she never actually appeared as a cast member. But she was HIRED to be on Season 6, poached from Second City’s then-running “SCTV” (John Candy was also approached but declined) only to quit before ever appearing on camera due to unpleasant working conditions with the show’s head writer of the time. But she was announced as a new cast member, so it counts. O’Hara has gone on to a legendary career on TV and film, winning an Emmy for Best Actress for “Schitt’s Creek,” and a slew of iconic film roles including Beetlejuice and Home Alone. In 2021 she was listed in Forbes’ 50 Over 50 list, and in 2023 she won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Canadian Screen Awards. Not so bad, eh?
Who are some of your favorite “Saturday Night Live” cast members? Leave a comment below!
