10 A-List Stars Who Got Their Start in Sketch Comedy

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Saturday Night Live has a notorious diversity problem. In Living Color launched about as many minority careers in five seasons as Saturday Night Live has in forty. Even with their recent push for a more diverse cast, SNL currently employs four minority cast members out of fourteen, while shows like Key and Peele and Friends of the People offer a much higher percentage of diversity. Given SNL’s historically white point of view, it is easy to forget that the biggest star in the show’s history was African-American.

We don’t have a present-day comparison to the fame that Eddie Murphy had in his prime. While Will Ferrell, Mike Meyers, and other SNL alums have enjoyed A-list fame, they were never the top stars in Hollywood. In his prime, Eddie Murphy was the most bankable star in the world. According to Box Office Mojo, he is the fifth highest grossing U.S. actor of all time.

It probably doesn’t surprise you to hear that Murphy started off young. He began writing stand-up material at age 15 and was a movie start by the age of 22. He became a cast member of SNL in his early twenties as well. By 1982, Murphy’s star was shining so brightly that he became the only cast member ever to host while he was an active repertory player on the show.

The ‘80s would prove to be Eddie Murphy’s decade. At the height of his powers, if you counted all of his films as a franchise, he rivaled Star Trek in terms of profitability. Murphy wasn’t just a commercial success. Few actors boast a run of three films as beloved in the comedy world as Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop, and Coming to America. Like many comedy performers, Murphy’s later career hasn’t been as kind. Though Shrek has proven profitable for him and Dreamgirls won him his Oscar, it’s hard to look at films like Norbit and Tower Heist and see a performer who once held Hollywood in the palm of his hand.

The relationship between Will Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay might be the most important partnership in American comedy—their work together on Ferrell’s string of masculine fish-out-of-water films and their co-founding of Funny or Die have deeply impacted the American comedy landscape. Since the release of Anchorman, Ferrell has never lost his grip on comedy culture. No one was surprised when Ferrell was recently declared Saturday Night Live’s greatest all-time cast member by Grantland.

Unlike many great comedic minds, Ferrell was never a successful stand-up. After attempting stand-up and not getting very far, he was drawn to practicing improvisation and sketch comedy with the Groundlings. After he was named to the Groundlings professional group, his career started to take off. During the following year (1995), he was invited to audition for Saturday Night Live. His seven-year run there yielded such memorable impressions as George W. Bush, Robert Goulet, and Harry Caray. Of course, it’s almost hard to call many of Ferrell’s best characters impressions because his work always had a level of absurdity to it. When he asked, as Harry Caray, “If you were a hot dog, would you eat yourself?” Ferrell wasn’t seeking fidelity to a character. Ferrell’s larger-than-life approach to comedy has served him well in his impressive film career and continues to guide his sensibility as a producer on projects like Eastbound and Down and Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.

Shaping a second act to your career is one of the most difficult moves in show business. Eddie Murphy, Mike Meyers, and many other comedians provide cautionary tales to this very issue. Bill Murray has found what may go down as the greatest second act in American comedy history with his string of melancholy indie egoists that he has played for Wes Anderson, Sophia Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, and more. Murray’s triumphant late middle age still doesn’t quite match the box office and the critical success that he achieved early on. In the 1980s and ’90s Murray starred in Caddyshack, Stripes, Tootsie, Ghostbusters, Scrooged, What About Bob?, and Groundhog Day in a historic comedy run that may never be repeated.

Early in his career, Murray spent three seasons with Saturday Night Live, but that only tells part of his sketch comedy story. Like many phenomenal comedy performers, Murray came out of Chicago’s Second City troupe. This led to a position on The National Lampoon Radio Hour alongside John Belushi. His first TV role came shortly thereafter on Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell, which is not the same SNL we know today. Next came an opportunity on NBC’s Saturday Night, also not SNL. Next, Murray spent some time working with LA-based group TVTV before finally joining Saturday Night Live in 1977. After his start on SNL, Murray collaborated with Eric Idle on a Rutles project (a Beatles parody that has taken various forms) and appeared on Second City Television, a short-lived sketch series.

So, yeah, Murray did a lot of sketch.

It feels strange to say that John Candy is overlooked when it comes to comedy stars. In his heyday, there was no one bigger than Candy. Yet, though history remembers his contemporaries—like Bill Murray and Steve Martin—with incredible fondness, John Candy’s contributions to American comedy aren’t discussed as often. Sadly, this is probably largely a result of his early death at the age of 43. If you have a free weekend, you could do a lot worse than a John Candy film marathon. His performance in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles is one of the sweetest and funniest comedy performances ever put on film. Add in The Blues Brothers, Splash, Spaceballs, Uncle Buck, and even Cool Runnings, and you realize just how much of a shame it is that Candy’s star seems to have faded in the cultural memory.

Candy’s sketch career began alongside fellow Canadian and unfairly forgotten comedy gem Rick Moranis. The two comedians landed their first television roles on the short-lived talk show 90 Minutes Live. They found more sustained success after becoming members of the Toronto branch of Second City. Their work with Second City led to the creation of the cult favorite sketch show SCTV, which was ultimately picked up by NBC and earned several Emmy Awards. SCTV was just the springboard both he and Moranis needed, as they both went on to enjoy successful film careers throughout the ‘​80s.

Few future superstars had as short a stint on Saturday Night Live as Billy Crystal. Crystal’s time on the show lasted only one season, despite his development of a few memorable characters during that time. Of course, if you launch one of America’s greatest comedic film careers after leaving, there is no need for sour grapes. After some memorable minor roles in great films like This is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride, Crystal earned the role that would define his career in When Harry Met Sally. His performance as Harry Burns in that film still impacts the rom-com genre today, and the particular chemistry between he and Meg Ryan remains unmatched. Though Crystal went on to launch franchises with Analyze This, City Slickers, and Monsters Inc., and he appeared in the films of Woody Allen and Kenneth Branagh, it looks like When Harry Met Sally will forever remain his defining film performance.

Ben Stiller Show has become a cult favorite, it only lasted 13 episodes. Though the show didn’t make it past the initial season, the creative team has gone on to re-shape American comedy. Between the writers and actors, Stiller was joined by comedic minds like Judd Apatow, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, and Dino Stamatopolous (animator and Dan Harmon’s partner in crime). Despite the comic brilliance behind it, the show absolutely tanked in the ratings, even though the writing was sharp enough to earn an Emmy (sadly, awarded after it was canceled). Stiller’s film career needs no introduction, so I’ll simply list my three favorite performances: Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, and Tropic Thunder.

After years of working in the comedy trenches, Poehler’s performance as Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation has led to her earning the place in American comedy she so richly deserves. Though Poehler’s best-remembered sketch work was on Saturday Night Live, her first foray into televised sketch comedy was as a part of the Upright Citizens Brigade television show on Comedy Central. Though the show only ran for three seasons, the school that the cast set up in New York City has become the dominant training center in American comedy. Odds are that you’re familiar with Poehler’s half-decade run on SNL, where she played many memorable characters, including Hillary Clinton.

Her book, Yes Please, is slated for release at the end of October.

It’s a shame that the later part of Chevy Chase’s life has been marred by his notorious ego and infamous mouth. Sadly, Chase has made more headlines for ruining shooting days on Community than he has for his film work in recent years. Though reports are that Chase has always been a jerk, he was at least, at one time, a very talented jerk. Though you can pick from about a half-dozen stellar comedy performances from Chase, my favorite has always been him as the smartass P.I. who’s in over his head in the Fletch films.

Prior to his work on Saturday Night Live, Chase kicked around a few different sketch shows. He founded a comedy ensemble called Channel One in 1967. He wrote for Smothers Brothers TV in the early ‘70s. He also appeared with several future SNL cast mates on The National Lampoon Radio Hour. Chase had a brief career on SNL, but he left a deep impact. He was the first person to intone, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” and the first Weekend Update anchor. The ‘80s were incredibly kind to Chase; he starred in a ten-year long string of hits that began with Caddyshack and continued largely uninterrupted through the holiday favorite National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Chase’s career has never come anywhere near its previous height, partially because he is so difficult to work with. Gawker put out a thorough rundown of Chase’s offenses in 2012.

Jim Carrey’s sketch comedy career began when he was turned down for a spot on Saturday Night Live. Prior to his failed audition in the early ‘80s, Carrey had already made a name for himself in stand-up comedy, attracting Rodney Dangerfield as a mentor and becoming his opening act. The ‘80s were full of false starts for Carrey even though his stand-up success continued. A failed NBC pilot, several forgotten low-budget films, and a few solid supporting roles came his way. In 1990, Carrey finally found the platform that would launch him to stardom. Along with the Wayans Brothers, Carrey developed In Living Color. The show lasted five seasons and provided a diverse alternative to Saturday Night Live. Shortly before In Living Color was ended in 1994, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective opened to massive box office success. Ace Ventura launched an incredible comedy career that moved full speed ahead until it was derailed by the failure of The Majestic in 2001. Though one of his best performances of his career came in 2004 with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Carrey’s post-Majestic career has never recovered. Following a well-received performance in Kick-Ass 2 and the forthcoming Dumb and Dumber sequel, it looks like things are looking up for Carrey. As it stands, however, he remains a once bright comic star who has had trouble figuring out a successful second act.

The full extent of Kristin Wiig’s stardom remains to be seen. With the mega-hit Bridesmaids and the gut-punching indie Skeleton Twins under her belt, it looks like the comedy world is her oyster. Wiig honed in on her comedic chops during a seven-year run on Saturday Night Live that yielded many of the most memorable SNL characters of the decade, including The Target Lady, The Two A-Holes, and Vicky St. Elmo. Towards the end of her run on SNL, Wiig started building up an impressive filmography that included scene-stealing turns in Knocked Up, Whip It, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Bridesmaids was the star-making role that turned Wiig into the kind of actor who can get projects green-lit on the strength of her name alone. Only time will tell where her newfound status lands her in the comedy pantheon.