1. Norman Gene Macdonald was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and writer whose style was characterized by deadpan delivery, eccentric understatement, and the use of folksy, old-fashioned turns of phrase.
72 Facts About Norm Macdonald
1. 2.
Norm Macdonald appeared in many films and was a regular guest on late-night talk shows, where he became known for his chaotic yet understated style of comedy.
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In 1993, Norm Macdonald was hired as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live, spending a total of five seasons on the series, which included anchoring the show's Weekend Update segment for three and a half seasons.
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Norm Macdonald was a voice actor, and provided voice acting roles for Family Guy, The Fairly OddParents, Mike Tyson Mysteries, The Orville, and the Dr Dolittle films.
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Norm Macdonald died of leukemia in September 2021, a condition he had not publicly disclosed.
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Norman Gene Macdonald was born on October 17,1959, in Quebec City, Quebec.
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Norm Macdonald has described himself as being "half-Scottish and half-Irish".
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Norm Macdonald attended Quebec High School before his family moved to Ottawa, Ontario.
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Norm Macdonald claimed to have dropped out at 16, but in fact graduated at 14.
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Norm Macdonald was later briefly enrolled in Algonquin College's programs for journalism and broadcasting-television, following his elder brother Neil Norm Macdonald's footsteps.
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Norm Macdonald did not appreciate how well his first performance at the club had gone, and he bolted out, saying he would never do it again.
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Norm Macdonald appeared on Late Night with David Letterman in May 1990, and the host became a huge fan, saying: "If we could have, we would have had Norm on every week".
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In 1992, Norm Macdonald served as a writer for the only season of The Dennis Miller Show, working on a staff that included Barry Crimmins, Nick Bakay, John Riggi, Eddie Feldmann, and Mark Brazill.
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Norm Macdonald joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live television program in 1993, where he performed impressions of Larry King, Burt Reynolds, David Letterman, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Charles Kuralt, and Bob Dole, among others.
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Norm Macdonald commonly used actor-singer Frank Stallone as a non-sequitur punchline and absurdly blamed him for such events as toxic waste or high unemployment rates.
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Nonetheless, Norm Macdonald stopped the Frank Stallone jokes after a 1997 request from Sylvester Stallone, Frank's brother, who was guest host for SNL.
17.
In early 1998, Don Ohlmeyer, president of NBC's West Coast division, had Norm Macdonald removed as Weekend Update anchor, citing a decline in ratings and a drop-off in quality.
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Norm Macdonald was replaced by Colin Quinn at the Weekend Update desk beginning on the January 10,1998, episode.
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Norm Macdonald believed at the time that the true reason for his dismissal was his series of Simpson jokes during and after the trial, in which he frequently called him a murderer; Ohlmeyer was a good friend of Simpson and supported him during the proceedings.
20.
Ohlmeyer claimed that Norm Macdonald was mistaken, pointing out he had not censored Jay Leno's many jokes about Simpson on The Tonight Show.
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Norm Macdonald remained on SNL as a cast member, but he disliked performing in regular sketches.
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Norm Macdonald continued to insist that he did not personally dislike Ohlmeyer but that Ohlmeyer hated him.
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Norm Macdonald pointed out that he had only taken issue with Ohlmeyer, whereas the people taking shots at NBC and SNL were Letterman, who wanted Norm Macdonald to come to CBS, and Stern, who wanted him to join his show opposite SNL.
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Norm Macdonald asserted that Ohlmeyer's influence had resulted in the cancellation of promotional appearances for his film on WNBC's Today in New York, NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and the syndicated Access Hollywood.
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Norm Macdonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host the October 23,1999, show.
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Later that year, Norm Macdonald voiced Lucky in the Eddie Murphy adaptation of Dr Dolittle.
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Norm Macdonald reprised the role in both Dr Dolittle 2 and Dr Dolittle 3.
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In 1999, Macdonald starred in The Norm Show, co-starring Laurie Metcalf, Artie Lange, and Ian Gomez.
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When Michael Richards refused to portray himself in the scene reenacting the famous Fridays incident in which Kaufman threw water in his face, Norm Macdonald stepped in to play Richards, although he was not referred to by name.
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Norm Macdonald appeared in Forman's previous film The People vs Larry Flynt as a reporter summoned to Flynt's mansion regarding secret tapes involving automaker John DeLorean.
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In 2000, Norm Macdonald played the starring role for the second time in a motion picture alongside Dave Chappelle, Screwed, which fared poorly at the box office.
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Norm Macdonald continued to make appearances on television shows and in films.
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Also, in 2000, Norm Macdonald made his first appearance on Family Guy, as the voice of Death.
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In 2003, Norm Macdonald played the title character in the Fox sitcom A Minute with Stan Hooper, which was cancelled after six episodes.
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In 2005, Macdonald signed a deal with Comedy Central to create the sketch comedy Back to Norm, which debuted that May The pilot, whose cold opening parodied the suicide of R Budd Dwyer, featured as a cast member Rob Schneider and never turned into a series.
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In 2006, Norm Macdonald again performed as a voice actor, this time in a series of commercials for the Canadian mobile-services provider Bell Mobility, as the voice of Frank the Beaver.
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Norm Macdonald filled in during Dennis Miller's weekly "Miller Time" segment on O'Reilly Factor, and guest-hosted Miller's radio show, on which he was briefly a weekly contributor.
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Norm Macdonald was a guest character on My Name Is Earl in the episode "Two Balls, Two Strikes" as Lil Chubby, the son of "Chubby", similar to Norm Macdonald's portrayals of Reynolds on SNL.
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On June 19,2008, Norm Macdonald was a celebrity panellist on two episodes of a revived version of the game show Match Game.
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In 2009, Macdonald and Sam Simon pitched a fake reality show to FX called The Norm Macdonald Reality Show, where Macdonald would play a fictional, down-on-his-luck version of himself.
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Norm Macdonald became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien during its 2009 and 2010 run.
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Norm Macdonald made frequent appearances on the Internet talk show Tom Green's House Tonight, and on May 20,2010, was guest host.
43.
In September 2010, Norm Macdonald was developing a series for Comedy Central that he described as a sports version of The Daily Show.
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Early in 2012, it was reported that Macdonald was developing a talk show for TBS titled Norm Macdonald is Trending, which would see Macdonald and a team of correspondents covering headlines from pop culture and social media.
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Norm Macdonald played the role of Rusty Heck, Mike Heck's hapless-yet-crafty brother on the sitcom The Middle, which ran from 2009 to 2018.
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Norm Macdonald joined Grantland as a contributor in the first two months of 2013.
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In 2014, Norm Macdonald unsuccessfully campaigned on Twitter to be named the new host of The Late Late Show after then-host Craig Ferguson announced he would be leaving.
48.
On May 15,2015, Norm Macdonald was the final stand-up act on the Late Show with David Letterman.
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Also in 2015, Norm Macdonald was a judge for the ninth season of NBC's Last Comic Standing, joining the previous season's judges, Roseanne Barr and Keenan Ivory Wayans and replacing fellow Canadian Russell Peters from 2014.
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Norm Macdonald was replaced by Jim Gaffigan in the role by February 2016.
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From May 2017, Norm Macdonald moved his comedy to a more reserved, deadpan style.
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In March 2018, Netflix announced it had ordered ten episodes of a new talk show titled Norm Macdonald Has a Show, hosted by Macdonald.
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Norm Macdonald's scheduled appearance on NBC's Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was cancelled.
54.
In 2019, Macdonald appeared on Lights Out with David Spade and claimed to have changed his mind on O J Simpson's guilt, alleging that he could have rushed to judge the man.
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In February 2020, Norm Macdonald launched Loko, a dating app he co-created that relies heavily on video to make first impressions.
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Norm Macdonald had a recurring role as Yaphit, a gelatinous engineer, on the Fox science fiction series The Orville, whose third season, subtitled New Horizons, premiered in June 2022; Macdonald appeared posthumously in his last casting.
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Norm Macdonald said his influences included the comedians Bob Newhart, Sam Kinison, Rodney Dangerfield, Dennis Miller, and the writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov.
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In 1988, Norm Macdonald married Connie Vaillancourt, with whom he had a son, Dylan, born in 1992.
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Norm Macdonald was a Christian and discussed theology and his personal beliefs publicly.
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Norm Macdonald had a gambling addiction he claimed started with a six-figure win at a craps table in Atlantic City.
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Norm Macdonald frequently played live cash games as well as online poker.
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Norm Macdonald said in a 2018 interview that, prior to the shutdown of online poker in the United States through the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, he would play up to 20 online limit hold 'em games at once.
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Norm Macdonald disclosed his diagnosis only to his family, agent, and producing partner, fearing that revealing his condition to the public would "affect the way he was perceived", according to his brother Neil.
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Norm Macdonald received several stem cell transplants, using aliases to avoid attention, with his final transplant occurring in March 2021.
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Norm Macdonald was prescribed dexamethasone, which caused him to gain weight.
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The cancer went into remission not long after, but in early 2020, Norm Macdonald developed treatment-associated myelodysplastic syndrome, a cancer that often develops into acute myeloid leukemia.
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In July 2021, Norm Macdonald entered the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, for a round of chemotherapy, where he developed an infection.
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Norm Macdonald remained hospitalized at the City of Hope until his death from complications from acute leukemia on September 14,2021.
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Norm Macdonald was survived by his older brother, Neil; his younger brother, Leslie; his son, Dylan; and his mother, Ferne.
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Norm Macdonald further remembered Macdonald as one of the greatest talk show guests and comedians of all time.
71.
Dave Chappelle dedicated his Netflix special The Closer to the memory of Norm Macdonald, who had died shortly before its release.
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Chappelle opened his 2023 special The Dreamer crediting Norm Macdonald with making him fall in love with comedy again.