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Actor Phil Hartman and wife found dead of gunshot wounds
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Hartman and his wife
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May 28, 1998
Web posted at: 1:54 p.m. EDT (1754 GMT)
ENCINO, California (CNN) -- Actor Phil Hartman, who portrayed radio newsman Bill McNeal in the NBC television comedy "NewsRadio," and his wife were found shot to death in their home Thursday morning in what police said was an apparent murder-suicide.
Police said Brynn Hartman, 40, apparently took her own life after police arrived, and that Hartman had been killed some time earlier.
The two, both dead of gunshot wounds, were found in the house, police Detective Brent Josephson said.
| Actor Steve Guttenberg "shocked"... |
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260K/25 sec. AIFF or WAV sound
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Police said they took a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl from the house. The children were visibly upset but otherwise unharmed, police said.
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Aerial view of Hartman's house in Encino
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Police and an ambulance responded to a call of shots fired shortly after 6 a.m. (1300 GMT) at the home in the Los Angeles suburb, Josephson said.
Lt. George Rock told KNX radio in Los Angeles that one of the dead was Hartman, who has a home in Encino. Hartman, 49, got his break on the "The Groundlings," which has produced such names as Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) and Steve Guttenberg. Hartman appeared on the "Saturday Night Live" TV show for eight seasons, an experience he found stressful.
He told People magazine in a 1995 interview, "The rejection and backstabbing could be painful but the hardest thing was competing against your friends for airtime."
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"NewsRadio"
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His work with the series was highlighted by his characterizations and impressions of personalities such as Frank Sinatra, President Bill Clinton, Jack Nicholson, Phil Donahue, Ronald Reagan, Sen. Ted Kennedy, Ed McMahon, the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart and Mikhail Gorbachev. Hartman was also the voice of several important characters on the animated television series "The Simpsons."
Hartman starred in numerous feature films, including "Greedy" with Michael J. Fox and Kirk Douglas, "House Guest," "Blind Date," "Three Amigos," "Coneheads," "Fletch Lives," "Quick Change," "So I Married an Axe Murderer" and "Sgt. Bilko" with Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd. Hartman recently starred in "Jingle All the Way" with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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