Gilda Radner

"(S)he whom the gods love dies young." --"Bacchides," Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 BC), Roman comic dramatist Goodby, Gilda Radner. R.C. STOCKNER Granada Hills

If the Pasadena Playhouse had decided to adopt a theme song when a dire economy and longstanding debts forced it to cease operations for most of 2010 while it tried to claw its way back to solvency, "Stand by Me," the 1961 pop-soul classic sung by Ben E. King, would have fit the situation precisely. It turns out that Mike Stoller, who co-wrote and co-produced "Stand by Me," among dozens of other indelible hits of the 1950s and 1960s on which he teamed with his partner, the late Jerry Leiber, was paying attention, along with his wife, musician Corky Hale Stoller.

Comedian Gilda Radner, who made millions laugh with the zany characters she created as a member of the original cast of television's "Saturday Night Live," died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long struggle with ovarian cancer. The 42-year-old performer had fought the disease for 2 1/2 years and had recently written a book about her struggle. She died in her sleep, with her husband, actor Gene Wilder, at her side, friends said. Radner entered Cedars-Sinai on Wednesday for treatment of side effects from earlier treatments, according to a hospital spokesman.

Gene Wilder's frank, charming memoir, "Kiss Me Like a Stranger," is refreshingly free from the two major sins of show-biz autobiographies: self-aggrandizement and score-settling. Oh, he tosses a few zingers at Carol Channing for her diva-like behavior during a summer tour of "The Millionairess," and he isn't terribly nice to his first wife.

Early in 1987, as Gilda Radner battled cancer, she and the Wellness Community found each other. She was to become a regular at the semiannual joke-fests that are part of the community's therapy for cancer patients. In her autobiography, "It's Always Something," Radner compared these support group gatherings in Santa Monica to "Saturday Night Live" in its early days--"when we had our innocence and we believed in making comedy and making each other laugh."

"I'm at the edge of growing up," Gilda Radner says almost in a whisper. "It's really scary." Now 39 and well into the second year of her marriage to actor-director Gene Wilder, Radner has put six years between herself and the adolescent craziness of "Saturday Night Live." No longer is she Roseanne Roseannadanna, Baba Wawa or any of the other characters she played during her five years in the TV fishbowl. Instead, Radner glories in playing plain Mrs.

"Portrait of the Artist as a Housewife" is the title Gilda Radner initially intended for this book, which she had envisioned as "a collection of stories . . . about things like my toaster oven." Fate dealt her a considerably less humorous topic, however, in late 1986, when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. One might think Radner among the least well-equipped to grapple with such a demon in print, for the comedienne's best-known characters on the original "Saturday Night Live"--little girls at slumber parties or on first dates--seemed to spring from a still-innocent spirit.

The second annual Comedy-Sportz Celebrity All-Stars for Gilda's Club will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. The improvisational comedy competition benefits Gilda's Club, a cancer support center named for the late comedian Gilda Radner. Sandra Bernhard is among the celebrity performers scheduled to attend. Tickets: $25-$100. For tickets, call (213) 466-1767.

Gilda Radner won America's heart first as a ragamuffin comedian, then as a warrior against cancer. Her life story should make for a wonderfully inspirational TV movie, yet the version of it told tonight in "Gilda Radner: It's Always Something" (9 p.m., ABC) is surprisingly uninvolving.

Comic actor Gene Wilder, back on the big screen in "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" after a three-year break to help wife Gilda Radner overcome ovarian cancer, says the struggle has made him appreciate life much more. "Life is very short. Everyone says, 'I know, I know,' but . . . if they knew, they'd stop doing what's unimportant and do what is important. There's no time for anything else. And it's too sad to learn it when it's too late," Wilder says in an interview in the May 29 issue of US magazine.

Gilda Radner won America's heart first as a ragamuffin comedian, then as a warrior against cancer. Her life story should make for a wonderfully inspirational TV movie, yet the version of it told tonight in "Gilda Radner: It's Always Something" (9 p.m., ABC) is surprisingly uninvolving.

I was going through life As free as a lark, In the world of acting I was making my mark. In Second City, And then on T.V., Not thinking once About the big "C". I saved up my money, An apartment I bought. My wealth was my own, Or so I thought. I can't even tell you How often you cry. When the dreaded "C" Starts draining you dry. Friends try to console, And tell you they care. But deep down you feel That this is unfair.

The second annual Comedy-Sportz Celebrity All-Stars for Gilda's Club will take place Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. The improvisational comedy competition benefits Gilda's Club, a cancer support center named for the late comedian Gilda Radner. Sandra Bernhard is among the celebrity performers scheduled to attend. Tickets: $25-$100. For tickets, call (213) 466-1767.

The Scene: L.A.'s glitterary elite turned out en masse at the Westwood Playhouse on Thursday for the staged reading-cum-publication party for "Bunny Bunny," writer Alan Zweibel's memories of his 14-year friendship with the late comedian and original "Saturday Night Live" star Gilda Radner, who died of ovarian cancer five years ago. "It was a necessary kind of therapy for me," Zweibel, one of the original SNL writers and a four-time Emmy winner, told the audience.

BUNNY, BUNNY: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story by Alan Zweibel (Villard: $14.95; 208 pp.) Writer Alan Zweibel and comic actress Gilda Radner were best friends for more than a decade before Radner died of cancer in 1989. Three years later, Zweibel, still trying to come to terms with his grief, wrote "Bunny, Bunny," a witty, moving tribute to his old friend.

Early in 1987, as Gilda Radner battled cancer, she and the Wellness Community found each other. She was to become a regular at the semiannual joke-fests that are part of the community's therapy for cancer patients. In her autobiography, "It's Always Something," Radner compared these support group gatherings in Santa Monica to "Saturday Night Live" in its early days--"when we had our innocence and we believed in making comedy and making each other laugh."

Universal declined to comment, but sources tell us that Kevin Costner got bumped from a recent People magazine cover--replaced by the face of Gilda Radner, following her untimely death. Meanwhile, we've learned, People's sister publication, Time, is interviewing "Field of Dreams" principals for a piece on Costner and the film, which has become the word-of-mouth hit of 1989. Time never promises covers to celebs, so that's up in the air. Time film critic Richard Corliss told us: "I'm not sure what play a story like that would get these days (with the China crisis)

BUNNY, BUNNY: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story by Alan Zweibel (Villard: $14.95; 208 pp.) Writer Alan Zweibel and comic actress Gilda Radner were best friends for more than a decade before Radner died of cancer in 1989. Three years later, Zweibel, still trying to come to terms with his grief, wrote "Bunny, Bunny," a witty, moving tribute to his old friend.

Alan Zweibel, one of "Saturday Night Live's" original writers, is understandably nervous about his upcoming first film, "North." It's based on his "worstseller" of the same name. Yep, worstseller. The creator of such zany, immensely popular characters as Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna and John Belushi's samurai swordsman, wrote the book 10 years ago.

This is not so much a biography as an affectionate reminiscence, an attempt to re-create a life and a time both irrevocably gone. David Saltman was Gilda Radner's friend since 1965, when they met at the University of Michigan. His claim to any authority rests not on any "credentials"--though he has enough of them--nor on the dubious credit of being an ex-lover lately come out of the woodwork, but on the strong, tenacious, dependable ties of long-term friendship.