Norm Macdonald, ‘SNL’ comic, dies

Norm Macdonald, the acerbic, sometimes controversial comedian familiar to millions as the Weekend Update anchor on Saturday Night Live from 1994 to 1998, died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 61. His manager, Marc Gurvitz, confirmed the death. Lori Jo Hoekstra, his longtime producing partner, told entertainment-news outlet Deadline that the cause was cancer.

Macdonald had a deadpan style honed on the stand-up circuit, first in his native Canada and then in the United States. By 1990 he was doing his routine on Late Night With David Letterman and other shows. Then, in 1993, came his big break: an interview with Lorne Michaels, a fellow Canadian, for a job on Saturday Night Live.

He got the job, and by the next year he was in the anchor chair for the Weekend Update segment. In sketches, he impersonated Burt Reynolds and Bob Dole and played other characters.