Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - The Tragic Story of Phil Hartman

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

This is the story of SNL star Phil Hartman

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And while we can't help you organize your calendar, LinkedIn can help you land more clients so you have a calendar to organize. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at LinkedIn.com slash small business. So this guy is one of the top comedic talents in the world, working on one of the biggest comedy shows in the world. And then, one day, suddenly, bang, someone unalives him. Why? Now the guy, his name's Phil, and Phil wants nothing more than to be a famous comedian one day.

He's taking improv classes, he's doing stand-up comedy, he's working as much as he can to make it big. But then, one day, he gets a little success. He and his friend, they create a fictional character named Pee-Wee Herman. And that character ends up having his own show called Peewee's Playhouse. And Phil, sometimes on that show, he plays a side character named Captain Carl. So Phil's career, it starts to move along. And he gets even more success when he co-writes the script for the Pee-Wee-Herman movie. And then he gets to cameo in that movie.

Look, there he is right there. So then that movie blows up. And Phil, he's getting some cameras. and some movies and some TV shows, and he's even getting some voice acting roles, so his life is going really well. But then he meets this woman, Bryn. And Bryn's a former swimsuit model, and she's an aspiring actress, and Phil thinks she is foy! And they start dating. And around the time he starts dating Bryn, Phil finally gets a career opportunity that's going to change his life. He gets the chance to audition for Saturday Night Live, and he goes in there and

And he freaking nails this audition. And so they cast him on the show. And this is his dream job. And the other cast members, they love him. And the S&L audience, they love him. They love his impressions of Ronald Reagan. Jimmy, don't make me have to kill you. And everyone especially loves his impression of Bill Clinton.

Please, don't tell Mrs. Clinton. Jim, let me tell you something. There's going to be a whole bunch of things we don't tell, Mrs. Clinton. Then he starts doing a lot of voiceover work. Namely on the biggest animated sitcom ever, The Simpsons, where he plays several characters, including Troy McClure. Oh, hi, I'm Troy McClure. So he's getting cast in all kinds of movies and TV shows now. Phil's career is going great, but you want to know whose career isn't going great?

Brin. Now eventually Phil and Brin get married, and she wants to make it big in Hollywood too. She's an aspiring actress. And while Phil's off doing S&L and The Simpsons and all that stuff, Brin is stuck it up. home raising their two kids and it sucks for her. So his career is blowing up and it's doing absolutely nothing for hers. I mean she's done some work as a background extra and she had one line in a Rob Reiner movie. One Coca-Cola right here and one sex on the beach. But that's kind of it. So she's trying everything she can to make it big like Phil. She's going on auditions. She apparently shows up on the S&L set a lot to visit Phil because allegedly she's hoping she'd get noticed and they would cast her in it. And according to some of the SNL staff,

she always wears bright colors and openly flirts with the other cast members. I mean, she is dying to get picked. In fact, she's on the SNL set so much, she actually gets screen time once when they're shooting the opening credit sequence. Now, in that sequence, they introduce Phil, and you can see Bryn in the shot sitting at the table across from him. Now, as the story goes, she allegedly keeps trying to turn her head to get her face in the shot because she wants the attention. And allegedly the director, he keeps telling her, no, turn your ass back around. We only need to see the back of your head. Phil is the star.

So Bryn wants this really bad. I mean, she wants everything her husband has, but she just can't get it. And on top of that, Phil isn't around as much as she would like because he's busy being successful, which is just a constant reminder to Bryn that, He made it big and she didn't. So then, of course, deep down, Brin starts to resent him. He's the talent. He's the star.

He's getting all the breaks while she's getting nothing. And this begins to put a strain on their marriage. Now, here's where it all starts to take a dark turn. Now, Brin, she's had some mental health problems. She's battling depression. She's working on her anger issues. And she often tries to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. particularly one drug, which I'll refer to as Coca-Cola.

So naturally, she ends up developing a bit of a habit. Meanwhile, Phil's career is still on fire. He leaves S&L after eight successful seasons, and he's getting roles in all kinds of movies, and he gets cast in one of the leads in a new NBC show called News Radio. And it's a sitcom starring him, Stephen Root, a young Joe Rogan with hair, and a creepy purvey actor named Andy Dick. And this is a great opportunity for Phil, but this new opportunity puts even more strain on his marriage.

And this whole time, Phil is putting pressure on Bryn to get her addiction in check. So she goes and she checks into rehab several times, and she starts taking antidepressants to get just everything under control. And eventually, after a bit of work, she finally gets clean and sober. Until. One night, the cast and crew of news radio, they throw a Christmas party, and Phil and Bryn they show up. Now, Bryn, she's been clean for a while at this point, a few years, allegedly. But while they're at this party, Phil's co-star, Andy Dick,

he offers Bryn some of that Coca-Cola she loves so much. And even though she's been sober for a while, I guess the temptation is just too much. And she accepts the Coca-Cola from Andy Dick, and she gets high. And this ends up triggering her relapse. And from this point on, her addiction spirals complete. out of control again. And this leads to her and Phil constantly fighting as he insists she just stopped using. And she ends up checking into rehab again a couple of times,

but she doesn't really stick with it. And then one night it all comes crashing down. Because Bryn, she's out at a restaurant with a friend and they're getting drinks. And she's also allegedly high on a little Coca-Cola and all of that is mixed with the antidepressants she's taking. Now eventually Bryn leaves the restaurant and she goes to visit her other friend and former boyfriend, this guy, who they call Ronald McDonald. So she and Ronald McDonald, they have a few beers at his house and they likely do a little Coca-Cola as that's what they often used to do together. And Bryn, of course, she complains to him about Phil, because she just isn't happy in her

marriage. Then hours later, around 1 a.m., she finally heads home. And when she gets home, she and Phil, they get into a huge fight, probably one of the biggest fights they've ever gotten into. So why are they fighting? Well, we don't exactly know. But it probably has something to do with her being drunk and high again, even after Phil insisted she gets sober.

Now eventually, Phil wanting to avoid the fight, he goes into the bedroom and he just goes to sleep. You're like, fuck you, I'm going to sleep. And that is when Bryn, she walks over to a closet and she gets out a pew-poo. And she points it at Phil while he's still sleeping and she pulls the trigger. Shooting him three times. And then she panics. Holy shh! What did I just do? And she gets in her car and she drives away and she drives all the way back to Ronald McDonald's house.

And she goes and she bangs on his door and Ronald opens it and she's like, I shot Phil and I don't know why. And Ronald, he doesn't believe her. In fact, he yells at her. He's like, go home, Bren, you're drunk. But then her pew-poo falls out of her purse and Ronald sees it. And that is when he starts to believe her. So Ronald takes the pu-poo away from her and he decides to follow her back to her house

to see what the hell is she talking about. they get there and they go inside and that's when she shows him, Phil, still lying there on the bed and he's, of course, unalived. He was only 49. And Ronald, he sees the body and he's like, holy shit, and he steps out of the bedroom and he calls 911. Meanwhile, Bryn, she's still in the bedroom and she starts having a nervous breakdown and she shuts the door and she locks herself in there. And Ronald tries to get in, but he can't. Now eventually, police arrive and Ronald tells them everything that happened. And police, they can't get into the bedroom either. So then police take Bren and Phil's kids out of the house and that is when they hear the sound one last time.

Bang. So police break into the bedroom through a window and there they find Bryn lying next to Phil unalived. She had taken the pew-poo and unalived herself too. It's a sad story and here they are in real life.