Laraine Newman

Newman was born on March 2, 1952, in Los Angeles, California,[2] the granddaughter of a cattle rancher from Arizona. Her family is Jewish.[3] She is the youngest of four children and a twin (brother Paul). Her sister, Tracy Newman, is an Emmy Award-winning television writer. Newman attended Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California and graduated from there in 1970. Newman married actor-writer-director Chad Einbinder (born 1963) in 1991. They have two children, Spike[4] (born 1991) and Hannah (born 1995).[5]

The song Never Let Her Slip Away, written and recorded by Andrew Gold, was about Newman. The two were a couple at the time. The song hit #5 on the UK charts in 1978.

Newman took her first Improvisational theatre classes when she was 15. After finishing high school she auditioned for four acting schools in England including Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and Bristol Old Vic. She was not accepted after the second round of auditions for all four schools, so she went to Paris to study mime with Marcel Marceau for a year.[6]

By the age of 19, Newman returned to the United States, and moved to Los Angeles, where she did a brief stint at a secretarial school. Committed to continue performing, she became a founding member of the pioneering comedy improvisational group The Groundlings.[7] At the same time, Newman was working for a booking agent who worked with rock bands, typing up contracts.[8]

Newman cites Eve Arden, Madeline Kahn and Richard Pryor as her first major influences, saying “They led me into my life of comedy, they led me into understanding ‘The Art of Play’."[9]

In 1974, Lorne Michaels hired 22-year-old Newman for a Lily Tomlin special, impressed with her work as founder and original member of The Groundlings. A year later, she became an original cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live, appearing on the show from its inception in 1975 through 1980.

During her five years on SNL she became a close friend of co-star Gilda Radner, although there was also a degree of rivalry between them.[10] The instant success of SNL propelled her to stardom very quickly. Newman recalled being stopped in the street in New York City by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who introduced themselves to her.[11]

Newman admits that she was "never a good improviser," but when in character, like an angry Jewish poet, a flight attendant, an eccentric chef or a British groupie, she was "free."

Commenting on her early experiences during Saturday Night Live she said: "When I first performed (my characters) and the audience responded, I felt like crying, I mean the idea that what I saw—what other people saw—(meant) I wasn't so alone in my perspective. I hope this doesn’t sound too overblown, but it really did feel like a Communion."[12]

However, by her own account, she was unhappy for much of her time with the show—she disliked living in New York. During her years on SNL, Newman had developed serious eating disorders, as well as heroin addiction. She spent so much time in her dressing room playing solitaire that for Christmas 1979, castmate Radner gave her a deck of playing cards with a picture of Newman on the face of each card.[13]

Newman's post-SNL film career has been in both leading and supporting roles, as well as a voice artist on television and features.

Newman has been nominated for awards numerous times, most notably for an Emmy in 1979 as a writer for Saturday Night Live.[18]

• Official website
• Laraine Newman on IMDb
• Laraine Newman at AllMovie
• Laraine Newman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Writings at One for the Table
• Laraine Newman at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television