57 Facts About Norm Macdonald

Norman Gene Macdonald was a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and writer whose style was characterized by deadpan delivery and the use of folksy, old-fashioned turns of phrase.

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.

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.

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.

Norm Macdonald died of leukemia in September 2021, a condition he had not publicly disclosed.

Norm Macdonald attended Quebec High School before his family moved to Ottawa, Ontario.

Norm Macdonald studied mathematics and philosophy at Carleton University in Ottawa before dropping out.

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.

Norm Macdonald worked a variety of manual labor jobs in between periods of school and before starting in comedy.

Norm Macdonald is survived by an older brother, Neil Macdonald, who was a journalist with CBC News, his younger brother, his son, and his mother.

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.

Norm Macdonald appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, and the host became a huge fan, saying: "If we could have, we would have had Norm on every week".

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.

Norm Macdonald commonly used Frank Stallone as a non-sequitur punchline.

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.

Norm Macdonald was replaced by Colin Quinn at the Weekend Update desk beginning on the January 10,1998, episode.

Ohlmeyer claimed that Norm Macdonald was mistaken, pointing out he had not censored Jay Leno's many jokes about Simpson on The Tonight Show.

Norm Macdonald remained on SNL as a cast member, but he disliked performing in regular sketches.

Norm Macdonald continued to insist that he did not personally dislike Ohlmeyer but that Ohlmeyer hated him.

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.

Norm Macdonald asserted that Ohlmeyer's influence resulted in 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.

Norm Macdonald returned to Saturday Night Live to host the October 23,1999, show.

Later that year, Norm Macdonald voiced Lucky in the Eddie Murphy adaptation of Dr Dolittle.

Norm Macdonald reprised the role in both Dr Dolittle 2 and Dr Dolittle 3.

In 1999, Macdonald starred in The Norm Show, co-starring Laurie Metcalf, Artie Lange, and Ian Gomez.

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.

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.

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.

Norm Macdonald continued to make appearances on television shows and in films.

Also, in 2000, Norm Macdonald made his first appearance on Family Guy, as the voice of Death.

In 2003, Norm Macdonald played the title character in the Fox sitcom A Minute with Stan Hooper, which was cancelled after six episodes.

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 Budd Dwyer, featured as a cast member Rob Schneider and never turned into a series.

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.

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.

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.

On June 19,2008, Norm Macdonald was a celebrity panellist on two episodes of a revived version of the game show Match Game.

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.

Norm Macdonald became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien during its 2009 and 2010 run.

Norm Macdonald made frequent appearances on the Internet talk show Tom Green's House Tonight, and on May 20,2010, was guest host.

In September 2010, Norm Macdonald was developing a series for Comedy Central that he described as a sports version of The Daily Show.

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.

Norm Macdonald joined Grantland as a contributor in the first two months of 2013.

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.

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.

Norm Macdonald was replaced by Jim Gaffigan in the role by February 2016.

From May 2017, Norm Macdonald moved his comedy to a more reserved, deadpan style.

In March 2018, Netflix announced it had ordered ten episodes of a new talk show entitled Norm Macdonald Has a Show, hosted by Macdonald.

Norm Macdonald's scheduled appearance on NBC's Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was cancelled.

In February 2020, Norm Macdonald launched Loko, a dating app he co-created which relies heavily on video to make first impressions.

Norm Macdonald said his influences included the comedians Bob Newhart, Sam Kinison, Rodney Dangerfield, Dennis Miller, and the writers Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov.

In 1988, Norm Macdonald married Connie Vaillancourt, with whom he had a son Dylan, born 1992.

Norm Macdonald reportedly dated model Elle Macpherson between 1997 and 1998.

Norm Macdonald had a gambling addiction that he stated was initiated by a six-figure win at a craps table in Atlantic City.

Norm Macdonald frequently played live cash games as well as online poker.

Norm Macdonald disclosed his diagnosis to only 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.

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.

Norm Macdonald remained hospitalized at the City of Hope until his death from complications from acute leukemia on September 14,2021.