"Fly on the Wall", Dana Carvey and David Spade's podcast about Saturday Night Live, did a couple of episodes in tribute to the late SNL cast member Phil Hartman, whose birthday was September 24. He would have been 75.
One of the things revealed about the great comedic actor is that before he got into comedy, he had a successful career as a graphic designer. He designed album covers for the bands Poco and America, among others.
If you are moved to search for other Phil Hartman-designed albums, you'll come across many, many references to his work on Steely Dan's Aja album, but that is inaccurate.
Here is a photo of Phil Hartman (left) in his late 20s, with the band Poco, in the mid '70s, about ten years before his debut on SNL.
The "Fly on the Wall" tributes are very touching because his castmates absolutely revered him and the multi-faceted aspect of his talent.
By the way, apparently Hartman's talent for mimicry got him hired to do looping for Jack Nicholson, essentially dubbing in Nicholson's voice in Nicholson's own movie. From the podcast:
JIM DOWNEY: I was always told … by people who claimed that Phil used to do looping for Jack Nicholson. Because Nicholson apparently got so lazy he didn't even want to go in and re-record a simple voice-over. And Phil would come in and do it.
DANA CARVEY: For the movie The Border, I believe. Can I tell a short story that is this? … So, I'm at a par three in Studio City with Jon Lovitz and Phil Hartman. So we wait and then we wave on the next golfer, and it's Nicholson, and he hits it out of bounds and hits a car. Anyway, so then he's coming up to us, and Phil was very… just a gentleman, who goes, "You know, Mr. Nicholson I just want to say that I actually dubbed your voice for the movie The Border." And Jack Nicholson said, "No wonder it was my only stinker."
Just for fun, here's an SNL sketch with Hartman that had Kevin Nealon cry/laughing while describing.
