Don Pardo, owner of the dulcet voice that introduced viewers to everyone from John Belushi and Will Ferrell to Gilda Radner and Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live, died Monday at his home in Tucson,The New York Timesreports. He was 96.
An employee of NBC throughout his 70-year career, Pardo had lent his voice to numerous hit shows before Lorne Michaels hired him to announceSNL upon its debut in 1975. Despite accidentally introducing the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players as the Not for Ready Prime-Time Players on the first episode, Pardo remained with the show for 38 seasons, missing only Season Seven, when Michaels left as well.
Born in Westfield, Massachusetts, Pardos interest in theater and radio blossomed as a student at Norwich Free Academy in Connecticut, and after moving to Providence, he began working with a local theater troupe. After several performances on the Providence NBC affiliate, the station manager offered him a $30-a-week announcing gig, which his wife convinced him to take despite the pay cut from his job at a machine tool manufacturer.
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Following a trip to NBC Studios in New York City with friend Hal Simms whod also become a sought-afterTV and radio voice Pardo thanked Patrick J. Kelly, the supervisor of announcers, for organizing the tour and was offered a job. In 1944, he started on the radio night-shift, but within a few years he was placed on television, even calling a few baseball games.
Pardo worked on everything from The Colgate Comedy Hour to the Price Is Right, where then-host Bill Cullen would occasionally mention him on air. While the Price Is Right moved to ABC in 1963, Pardo stayed at NBC: He would go on to be the first to alert viewers of the networks flagship station, WNBC, that President John F. Kennedy had been shot, and in 1964 he was named announcer forJeopardy!.
When the original version of thatgame show ended in 1975, Pardo was hired on SNL, as Michaels thought his authoritative voice was the perfect counterpoint tothe absurd late-nightcomedy. It couldnt have been a more different culture, Mr. Michaels said. But it was perfect for us. Pardos job announcing the stars helped solidify his own status: He made multiple appearances on the show, including one with musical guestFrank Zappa(which he recreatedon the musicians live album,Zappa in New York); he later made a cameoin Weird Al Yankovics I Lost on Jeopardy!,worked on Woody Allens Radio Daysand appeared in a 2009 episode of 30 Rock.
While Pardo retired in 2004, he continued to work on Saturday Night Live, often flying to New York from Arizona each week. Pardo was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2010, where formerSNL cast member Maya Rudolph summed up the power and significance of his voice: The moment you said my name was the height of my career.