Philip Edward Hartman né Hartmann September 24 1948 May 28 1998 was a Canadianborn American comedian actor screenwriter and graphic designer Hartman was born in Brantford Ontario Canada and his family moved to the United States when he was ten years old After graduating from California State University Northridge with a degree in graphic arts he designed album covers for bands including Poco and America In 1975 Hartman joined the comedy group the Groundlings where he helped Paul Reubens develop his character Peewee Herman Hartman cowrote the film Peewees Big Adventure and made recurring appearances as Captain Carl on Reubens show Peewees Playhouse In 1986 Hartman joined the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live SNL as a cast member and stayed for eight seasons until 1994 Nicknamed Glue for his ability to hold the show together and help other cast members he won a Primetime Emmy Award for his SNL work in 1989 He also starred as Bill McNeal in the sitcom NewsRadio voiced Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure on The Simpsons and appeared in supporting roles in the films Houseguest Sgt Bilko Jingle All the Way and Small Soldiers After two divorces Hartman married Brynn Omdahl in 1987 with whom he had two children However their marriage was troubled due to Phils busy work schedule and Brynns drug and alcohol abuse In 1998 while Phil was sleeping in his bed Brynn shot and killed him and later killed herself In the weeks following his murder Hartman was celebrated in a wave of tributes Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Hartman was the last person youd expect to read about in lurid headlines in your morning paper a decidedly regular guy beloved by everyone he worked with He was posthumously inducted into the Canada and Hollywood Walks of Fame in 2012 and 2014 Description above from the Wikipedia article Phil Hartman licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia