Word: hartman
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Behind all of Phil Hartman's characters lurked the same guy: uptight, inflated, slightly annoyed, but just self-aware enough to be in on the joke. In his personal life too, the longtime cast member of Saturday Night Live and NewsRadio seemed to be one of the few who appreciated the humor of celebrity, keeping his life in balance and low-key: a home in the unglamorous San Fernando Valley, a position as honorary sheriff in his town and a steady income from his TV show, small movie roles and voice-overs. So what happened early last Thursday morning...
...Angeles Times reported that Brynn, 40, an ex-model who was Hartman's third wife, had first fled to the male friend's house and fallen asleep there after talking incoherently of murdering her husband. After removing a gun from her purse, the friend took Brynn back to her home at dawn. But as the kids were carried out, she locked herself in the bedroom with a second gun and shot herself in the head. The Times quoted a lawyer who handled Hartman's 1985 divorce as saying the couple "had a pattern of arguing at night, and he would...
...about Brynn's violent possessiveness and past substance abuse. Even as family members denied the rumors, friends began talking about the fault lines in the marriage as well as Brynn's troubled history with controlling her anger. "They had a really nice, well-put-together family," says Andy Dick, Hartman's co-star in NewsRadio. "For nine years, Brynn was sober. She had her addictions in check, and she was getting help and everything was great. I can only assume that Brynn relapsed. I know Brynn when she was sober, and the sober Brynn is not capable of what supposedly...
...Hartman's friends never expected him to play the victim in a murder-suicide, and even after news broke of the deaths, they invariably used the word happy to describe him. For good reason. He had the summer off to spend with his family at a Malibu vacation home he was about to rent; his sitcom, NewsRadio, was renewed two weeks ago; and the film Small Soldiers, in which he has a sizable role, is due out in July...
...producer Lorne Michaels: "I'm not sure how well people really knew him. There was much more to him than appeared on the surface. I don't mean he was hiding anything as much as he was always very cool and pro." For someone known for his smirking Jesus, Hartman had a surprising piety. As he dealt with his father's death from Alzheimer's disease in April, he told the Catholic News Service, "Our faith prepares us for what lies ahead and tells us that it's a mystery to us, and we tremble before that mystery...