Saturday Night Live comedian Jan Hooks passed away last Thursday at 57 years old. Her death in Manhattan, confirmed by her agent last October 9, was attributed to a "serious illness" that the actress is battling with. However, the official cause of death has not yet been released. Her agent also did not provide any other details.
Janice Hooks, known as Jan Hooks, was an American comedian and actress who rose to prominence for her role on NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL). She was a repertory player from the year 1986 to 1991. She also continued to make cameo appearances in SNL until 1994.
In SNL, Hooks impersonated many personalities like Donald Trump's wife, Ivana, singer Bette Davis, actress Jodie Foster, singer Sinead O'Connor, television evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and was the first SNL cast member to play Hillary Clinton.
After Hooks left SNL in 1991, she starred as Carlene Dobber on the final two seasons of the show Designing Women and made appearances in 3rd Rock from the Sun as well as 30 Rock.
Hooks was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia and attended Canby Lane Elementary School and Towers High School. She started her acting career as a member of the Los Angeles based comedy troupe The Groundlings and in an Atlanta nightclub act known as The Wits End Players.
In the years 1978 to 1979, she appeared in Tush. This was on Ted Turner's television station WTCG that became TBS in the long run. She also appeared on the NBO comedy series Not Necessarily the News in the early 1980s. In the mid 1980's, she appeared on Comedy Break with Mack and Jamie.
Hooks also appeared in several movies She had roles in movies such as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure and Batman Returns.
According to former co-star in SNL Amy Poehler, "I was 15 years old when I first saw Jan Hooks on SNL. All of her characters spoke to me. She was one of the greats. When I was at SNL, we would frequently talk about her genius. This has been a sh***y couple of months for comedy."
