A Legacy Of Laughter
Long before she became Saturday Night Live's sassy newscaster Rosanne Roseannadanna and teen nerd Lisa Loopner, Gilda Radner was "a little ham," says her brother Michael. In their childhood home in Detroit, "my dad [Herman, a hotelier, who died in 1960] got a big kick out of her performing for company," recalls Michael, 56 and a private investor who still lives in Detroit near his mom, Henrietta, 92.
Gilda's life -- and death in 1989 from ovarian cancer at age 42 -- is the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story documentary (debuting Oct. 19 on cable's E! network), for which Michael contributed family photos, news clips and (with SNL alums such as Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris) on-air reminiscences. Especially poignant is the pact they made after their dad's death from cancer. "No matter what happened, she could call me and I would come," he says.
That included good times -- Michael calls his sib's husband, Gene Wilder, whom she wed in 1984, "a wonderful man" -- and bad -- he kept in constant touch with Gilda during her illness. "She said, `You can crawl into a corner and give up, but I'm a comedienne. I'll find the humor there,' " says Michael, who helps run the Detroit chapter of Gilda's Club, the cancer support community cofounded by Wilder in 1991. "I'm up to my eyebrows," says Michael, "and I love it." (Call 1-888-445-3248 for details.)
-- JOHN GRIFFITHS
