Longtime voice of ‘Saturday Night Live’ dies at 96
Don Pardo, who literally introduced television viewers to some of America’s biggest stars and soon-to-be-stars as the longtime announcer for “Saturday Night Live,” died on Monday in Tucson, Ariz. He was 96.
His daughter Dona Pardo confirmed the death.
Pardo, whose career began in the radio age, continued on “SNL” through the end of its most recent season, in May.
While not many people knew his face, practically every American knew his voice for more than half a century. Pardo was with “SNL” for 38 seasons, beginning with its first episode, in October 1975, missing only Season 7, and for many years he had been the announcer on the widely watched game shows “The Price Is Right” and “Jeopardy!”
For many viewers of “Saturday Night Live,” the names of scores of stars — from Chevy Chase to Eddie Murphy to Tina Fey — were first heard in Pardo’s sonorous baritone, which announced the cast each week at the end of the opening skit.
“Every year the new cast couldn’t wait to hear their name said by him,” Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, said Monday night.
That voice was validation for many stars.
“The moment you said my name was the height of my career,” Maya Rudolph told Pardo in a video tribute when he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2010.
In 1944, Pardo and a friend, Hal Simms, who would also become a top radio and TV announcer, made a fateful weekend trip to visit the NBC studios in New York. When Pardo stopped by to thank Patrick Kelly, the supervisor of announcers, for arranging the tour, he ended up with a job offer.