Top 10 Amazing Facts about Phil Hartman

Top 10 Amazing Facts about Phil Hartman

Phil as Chick by Paul Hartmann from Wikimedia Commons

More than 16 years have passed since comedian Phil Hartman, a star of Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and NewsRadio, was shot and killed in his bed by his wife Brynn, who then turned the pistol on herself. His murder stunned both those who knew him personally and others who just knew him from the roles he portrayed on television. It sent shockwaves across Hollywood.

Though not a lot was known about him there was a lot revealed from the famous biography You Might Remember me by Mike Thomas. From this book, we wrote a list of amazing facts that you might not know.  

1. He was “The Glue” that held SNL together

Jan Hooks, a regular scene partner and Hartman’s SNL co-star, gave her close friend the moniker “The Glue” because she helped her overcome stage shyness and was never hesitant to allow someone else to take centre stage in a sketch. The cast and crew gave him a pedestal with a bottle of wood glue attached to it after he departed the program after eight seasons.

2. His parents had to make tough decisions 

Sarah Jane Hartman, the younger sister, needed 24-hour care since she was born in 1951 with a rare neurogenetic condition subsequently known as Angelman syndrome. When her parents and seven siblings migrated from Canada to the United States in 1957, she was finally placed in a facility and did not go with them.

3. He almost had a career in art

Phil Hartmann art by Andrés Gómez from Wikimedia Commons

In the 1970s, Hartman turned his love of art and drawing—which had been nurtured in middle school when he and his brother would regularly stroll over to Disneyland—into a profession as an album cover and promotional material designer for bands.

One of these was the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young background logo, which the group continues to use today. (At Hartman’s memorial ceremony, Graham Nash also gave a performance.) When Hartman joined the comedic group The Groundlings in 1975, he chose to alter the group’s emblem rather than pay the $25 monthly dues.

4. He was a roadie in 1960

Drumhead Coated on Bass Drum by Edrocked from Wikimedia Commons

When working as a roadie in the 1960s, Hartman once carried a bass drum for Buddy Miles during a Jimi Hendrix concert at The Experience in Los Angeles.

5. He legally changed his name in search of good luck 

Born Phillip Hartmann, he eventually omitted the second N from his last name because he believed that each letter had a symbolic numerical value according to the I Ching, an ancient Chinese book of changes. The “destiny number” for “Phil Hartmann” is 8, which represents aspiration and a straightforward yet fulfilling family life.

The name “Phil Hartman” has a destiny number of 3, which is more in accordance with Hartman’s aspirations for himself and translates to “the height of creative satisfaction” and the “pinnacle of creation.” In 1992, he officially changed his name to Phil Hartman.

6. His second wife described him as “cheap”

Lavish cars in Porto by Michal Osmenda from Wikimedia Commons

Even though Hartman had a number of cars, boats, and even an aircraft, he was notoriously frugal when it came to necessities. He was “horrifically cheap,” according to his second wife Lisa Strain, with whom he remained close friends up until his passing.

She also claims that he wouldn’t even allow her to share the particular shampoo he used. While they were married, they also maintained separate bank accounts.

7. His friends didn’t like his wife 

In 1987, when Hartman revealed his engagement plans to Groundlings friend and actress Cassandra Peterson, Peterson exclaimed, “Oh God, no!”

The two didn’t communicate again for years after Hartman politely requested her to leave his office. It was the first time — and, I believe, the last time — that Peterson saw him upset. Later, after Hartman and Brynn’s son Sean was born, Hartman’s ex-wife Strain sent the pair a card of congratulations and received a death threat in response from Brynn.

8. He would never go shirtless for the SNL show

Chris Farley and other SNL cast members were more than eager to be naked for the program, but Hartman wouldn’t even remove his shirt for comedy.

9. He became inadvertently involved in a feud between Andy Dick and Jon Lovitz

Andy Dick by David Shankbone from Wikimedia Commons

Brynn (who battled sobriety intermittently for years) may have received cocaine from the actor’s NewsRadio co-star Andy Dick at a New Year’s Eve party held at the Hartmans’ house in 1997.

Witnesses witnessed Dick and Brynn briefly lock themselves in the restroom, despite Dick’s claim that he doesn’t remember. Jon Lovitz, a close friend of Hartman’s, had a ten-year-long vendetta against Dick because he thought Dick had actually given Brynn drugs. This hatred culminated in an altercation at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood in 2007 when Lovitz “picked Andy up by the head and smashed him into the bar four or five times.”

 10. His death changed at least one person’s mind on guns

Ed Begley by California Air Resources Board from Wikimedia Commons

Actor Ed Begley Jr. claims that the loss of a close friend led him to give up a shotgun he had kept in his house as a safety measure. After that, he adds, “I didn’t want a gun in the house.” “I then took it to the police station in North Hollywood. I entered the room empty and stated, “I want to get rid of this pistol.” I oppose its presence in the world.”

We will always remember Philip for the laughter he gave us and the memories he created through his show Simpson’s and SNL. Is there anything else you remember from him?