- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJanet Vivian Hooks
- Height5′ 6″ (1.68 m)
- Jan Hooks is better remembered for her five-year run on Saturday Night Live (1975) (1986-91) on the series she impersonated actress ranging from Bette Davis, to Ann-Margret, to Sally Kellerman, to Jodie Foster. After she left the show, she was proposed by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason to replace Jean Smart on CBS's Designing Women (1986). She accepted. She played the role of Carlene Dobber for the final two seasons. She has also played memorable characters in feature-films including, Tina (the Alamo girl) in Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), and Dixie Glick in Jiminy Glick in Lalawood (2004).- IMDb Mini Biography By: tony.r.vario@gmail.com
- RelativesSibling(Sibling)
- Smiled quite a lot when acting
- Hooks died of complications due to throat cancer, which had been diagnosed two years before she passed away in 2014. According to an article at the Grantland site, the cancer did not respond to surgery and chemotherapy, and doctors said the last medical option was a major procedure that had poor odds of curing her and would have ended her speaking ability forever. Hooks refused this and used home hospice care for the time between this diagnosis and her death.
- Originally turned down for a regular spot on Saturday Night Live (1975) in 1985 because they thought at age 28, she was too old; they hired her the next year, when she was 29.
- Attended the University of West Florida, but didn't graduate.
- Was formerly part of the improvisation group the Groundlings.
- Interestingly, she died at the numbered age that is the same as last two digits of her birth year ('57).
- [on dealing with stage fright during her stint on Saturday Night Live (1975)] Sometimes if I see an old show, I think "Boy, I was good!" I mean, can't you tell how shit-scared I was? And you know how they say, "Well, everybody's got the jitters," and you go out there and you're fine? No! I wasn't! I didn't like it! I don't like roller coasters, and I don't like circus performing. It's just not my thing. The music was too loud. The people, the energy of it just made me very nervous. [It was] an awful, awful time. And I didn't care. I didn't want to be [famous]. I didn't want to be on TV!
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