Darrell Hammond

This article is about the Saturday Night Live comedian. For the founder of KaBOOM!, see Darell Hammond. For the arena football player, see Darryl Hammond.

Darrell Hammond
Darrell Hammond on stage, 2005
Born	(1955-10-08) October 8, 1955 Melbourne, Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1980–present
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Hammond (1986-1994) (1997-present)

Darrell Hammond (born October 8, 1955) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history. Hammond has made more SNL appearances than any other cast member and has impersonated more than 107 celebrities (with former President Bill Clinton as his most frequent impression). As of January 16, 2010, he has appeared on the show six times since leaving the cast.

Biography

Personal life

Hammond was born in Melbourne, Florida. He graduated from Melbourne High School in 1973 where he was a star athlete who lettered in both football and baseball. Darrell was a high school baseball teammate of Bruce Bochy, manager and recent World Series winner for the San Francisco Giants. He then attended Brevard Community College and the University of Florida where he majored in broadcasting. After completing college, Hammond moved to New York City where he lived for several years before joining the cast of SNL.

In the late 1980s, Hammond worked briefly as a stand-up comedian on Premier Cruise Line ships. One evening while the boat was docked in the Bahamas, Hammond visited a restaurant, where he consumed the equivalent of 16 shots of rum. He claimed that a man repeatedly pestered him throughout the evening to take a dollar bill with trace amounts of cocaine on it. When the comedian left the bar to use the restroom, the man followed him into the stall and told him, "I think you should take this with you." Believing he was about to be mugged, he relented, and the man placed the bill inside Hammond's pocket. Local police were waiting outside the restroom and quickly arrested him. The US Drug Enforcement Administration later told Hammond that the episode had been a setup, and that local authorities regularly entrapped American tourists; he spent a weekend in a crude jail cell, and was assigned a "barefoot" attorney. Hammond was released after his father traveled to the Bahamas and paid $5000 for his son's release.

Hammond first publicly mentioned the incident while acting as a guest on a 1997 episode of the radio show Loveline; the story was again referenced when he returned to Loveline in 2000 and 2004. The comedian has otherwise not spoken about the arrest. Tina Fey and Tim Meadows, two friends and coworkers of Hammond's, said in 2004 they had not previously heard the story.

He married his wife, Elizabeth, in 1986. The death of a close friend in 1991 led to a relapse of drug and alcohol abuse. They divorced in the early 1990s and remarried in 1997. They have a daughter named Mia who was born in 1998.

Saturday Night Live

During the 2004–2005 season, Hammond set the record for the longest consecutive tenure of any SNL cast member in the show's history. He also holds SNL records for the most impressions by a single cast member (107, as of the Zac Efron/Yeah Yeah Yeahs episode) and for the most times saying the show's catch phrase "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" to start the show (beating out Dana Carvey).

He is best known on the show for impersonating former President Bill Clinton, as well as Al Gore, Donald Trump, John McCain, Regis Philbin, Dick Cheney, Chris Matthews, Phil Donahue, Ted Koppel, John Travolta, Jesse Jackson, Geraldo Rivera, and Sean Connery in the recurring Celebrity Jeopardy! skits. Hammond also impersonated SNL announcer Don Pardo, filling in for Pardo on occasions when the announcer was unavailable.

After the end of the 34th season, Hammond retired from the show after a record-breaking 14 years as a repertory player. Hammond was the last SNL cast member from the 1990s to leave the show.

Other work

In the late 1980s, Hammond gained fame for his impersonations of Elmer Fudd and other Looney Tunes characters in the comedy single "Wappin'." The song was so popular with Dr. Demento listeners, it was included on the show's 20th Anniversary compilation.

Hammond is a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show. He has also guest starred in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He had his own stand-up comedy special on Comedy Central: Comedy Central Presents Darrell Hammond. Hammond can frequently be seen at The Comedy Cellar in New York City.

In the summer of 2007, Hammond made his Broadway theatre debut, playing the role of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In 2009, Hammond had a guest starring role on the FX drama Damages. The same summer, Hammond appeared with Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, and Donald Trump in an Oreo commercial, where he does an impression of Trump.

In October 2011, Hammond's first novel and memoir, God, If You're Not Up There, I'm F***ed, will be released nationally by Harper Collins. It is a firsthand account of his abusive childhood, time spent in psychiatric hospitals, behind the scenes with the cast of SNL, and reflections on his family, and how his wife and daughter encouraged him to fight for sobriety.

Filmography

• Celtic Pride (1996)
• Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)
• The King and I (1999) (voice)
• The Devil and Daniel Webster (2001)
• Scary Movie 3 (2003)
• Agent Cody Banks (2003)
• New York Minute (2004)
• Ira and Abby (2006)
• Puff Puff Pass (2006)
• Kiss Me Again (2006)
• Netherbeast Incorporated (2007)
• Epic Movie (2007)
• Wieners (2008)

See also

• Celebrity Jeopardy!, a popular SNL skit which regularly featured Hammond as Sean Connery.

External links

• Darrell Hammond at IMDb
• Darrell Hammond: 12 years on SNL