Phil Hartman was known as “The Glue” of Saturday Night Live and “The Sultan of Smarm.” He was also known for how kind and confident and funny he was. But that all came to a screeching halt when his 3rd wife, Brynn shot him in their bed. Then, seemingly unable to live with what she’d done, Brynn shot herself. What brought this couple to the point of a murder-suicide?
May 28th, 1998
On the morning of May 28th, 1998 in Encino, California, 911 dispatch received a call at 6:20 am from a man saying that there is someone that’s been shot. They asked him the standard questions to find out if the person is still alive and if the scene is safe. The bewildered caller explained that his friend, the wife of the man that has been shot, came to his house drunk and told him she killed her husband. He tells dispatch that she’s still in the house and that he now has the gun she used. At first, the man, Ron Douglas, didn’t believe his friend, Brynn Hartman. But she brought him to her home, and Ron was shown the lifeless body of beloved actor Phil Hartman in his bed in his home. Brynn told Ron, “I killed him. I killed him. I told you I killed him. I don’t know why.”
Ron had stepped out of the bedroom to call 911.
While Ron was on the phone with dispatch in the other room, Brynn was on another phone in the bedroom. She closed the bedroom door and locked it. She was calling neighbors and friends and eventually, her sister. She told everyone that Phil was dead. While both Brynn and Ron are on the phone, the police showed up. Ron has retrieved the couple’s 9-year-old son from his room and passes him off to the police. Then they re-enter to get their 6-year-old daughter out of the house.
Then they hear a gunshot.
LAPD has to assume an active shooter and locate her in the house and disarm her. Outside of the house, they set up a team to break windows to get to the shooter. They found her. Brynn Hartman had never left the master bedroom after locking herself in. She had called her sister to tell her to make sure the kids always know that she loved them. Then she put the .38 caliber gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger. Brynn was lying next to the body of her husband, Phil. News spread quickly and the death of Phil Hartman – Saturday Night Live legend – would shock everyone from close friends and family to people who’d only ever watched him on TV and in movies.
Phil Hartman
Phillip Edward Hartmann was born on September 4th, 1948 in Brantford, Ontario in Canada. He was the 4th child out of 8 to devout Catholics Doris Marguerite Hartmann and Rupert Loebig Hartmann. At some point in his adult life, Phil would drop the second “n” at the end of Hartmann.
Rupert was a building supplies salesman and Doris was a stay-at-home mom. As the middle child in a big family, Phil struggled with the fact that he didn’t get as much attention and affection as he’d have liked, so he found other ways to get all eyes on him through being funny and entertaining. Phil would later say, “I suppose I didn’t get what I wanted out of my family life so I started seeking love and attention elsewhere.”
In 1958, when he was 10, his family moved to the United States. First, they were in Connecticut, but they settled permanently in California. In California, Phil attended Westchester High School. He became the class clown and was thriving in that attention. Not only was he getting all this attention, but Phil was also very much enjoying the California 60s life. He loved being outdoors and surfing. He smoked pot and made friends with people in all different types of groups.
After high school in 1966, Phil went to Santa Monica City College for a few classes. He would meet his friend Wink Roberts here in a public speaking course. Wink remembers they went on all kinds of trips like skiing and to anywhere there was water.
Wink retold ABC’s The Last Days of Phil Hartman his favorite trip with Phil. He said they went to Mammoth Mountain where there was a place called Hot Creek – a geothermal body of water that is always warm despite being in the snowy mountains. He recalled that the fog was thick and came about 4 feet off the ground so when you were in the water, you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. So Wink suggested that Phil do his impressions and really mess with the people around them. There were 100s of people and they couldn’t see anything, but then out of the fog came the voice of John Wayne. Wink said that Phil entertained people for about 2 hours doing all his different impressions.
Then Phil was offered an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. His brother John was managing a music group called Rockin’ Foo and he wanted Phil to tag along and be a stagehand and all that. Phil decided that he had to do it so he quit school and went. He traveled all over and lived that free life on the road. After a while, Phil started pondering what he was going to do with his life, and in 1970, he fell in love.
Apparently, Phil was quick to fall in love and almost as quick to be over it. He met Gretchen Lewis in 1970 and they quickly got married, but almost immediately, Phil started to close himself off emotionally.
In 1972, Phil decided to go back to college. He enrolled in California State University seeking a degree in graphic design and after he was finished he even started a graphic design business where he designed over 40 album covers for big-name bands America and Crosby, Stills, and Nash (he designed their logo) as well as smaller ones like Poco.
Despite his career successes, like Phil’s former attorney, Steve Small, said Phil “fell in love easy, but he wasn’t skilled at continuing the relationship.” This proved somewhat true as his first marriage began to deteriorate.
However, Gretchen recounts the details of their marriage in a more balanced way where they were both a little at fault. She would say:
I left school a year to work in the fashion business and at 18-years-old, I married Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live. At the time, he was a struggling graphic designer, designing album covers for Poco, Neil Young, and America. We lived in Malibu, were married for 5 years, and living quite the “Rock ‘n’ Roll” life. His older brother was a Willam Morris agent and had some big groups. It was a crazy life as was California in the 60s. Chuck Coleman actually came out to visit me once and no one was crazier than Chuck…He was the greatest guy, I was just not ready for that life.
Phil and Gretchen got divorced in 1972.
While he’s designing album cover art in 1975, 27-year-old Phil also became a part of The Groundlings.
The Groundlings is an improv comedy sketch group in California where a number of big-name comedic actors started. Paul Reubens (PeeWee Herman), Jon Lovitz, Will Farrell, Cheri O’Teri, Chris Katan, Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon…etc.
One night, they called for an audience member to come up and give it a shot. Phil did and he was referred to as a “hurricane” – a good one. He got up and started doing his impressions and just blew everyone away. After this, he was invited to become a member of The Groundlings. Julia Sweeney, fellow SNL alum said that Phil was a rockstar among The Groundlings and everyone (the women at least) had gone on a first date with Phil Hartman. Another Groundling member said that Phil was everyone’s big brother.
Later, Phil’s characters would all be described as egomaniacal, boorish, smarmy. These descriptions were a stark contrast to how everyone described the real Phil Hartman being called “one of the nicest, most well-liked actors in Hollywood.” Throughout his life, everyone would say nothing but complementary things about Phil. Co-workers and directors called him “professional and a joy to work with.”
During his time in The Groundlings, Phil helped Paul Reubens create the character of PeeWee Herman and was a writer on PeeWee’s Big Adventure. When PeeWee’s Playhouse started, Phil was one of the big characters, Captain Carl. Phil started to get more and more small roles and voice-over work. It was remarked that Phil, “The Man of a Thousand Voices,” hid behind his characters and used them to keep people at arms reach. His friends and exes would say that there is “some part of Phil that is very hard to reach” and he’s not very vulnerable.
In 1979, Phil, like most other men in Los Angeles was on The Dating Game. One person commented that “every Los Angeles male was on The Dating Game at some point.” This included George Foreman, Gregory Hines, Steve Martin, and let us not forget Rodney Alcala (The Dating Game Killer). Phil was even selected by the bachelorette, but she stood him up.
Then in December of 1982, Phil met and married Lisa Strain. Someone in The Last Days of Phil Hartman made the statement, “by the time you realize Phil’s not marriage material – you were already married to him.” Phil and Lisa’s “honeymoon period” was over quickly and within a few weeks of their wedding, Lisa said their relationship changed. Now that she was just the “wife,” Phil was no longer paying her attention and would say things to her that were almost cruel. She told the documentary that once, Phil told her that she needed to go have her own life, she was a black hole that no one would ever be able to fill.
She described Phil as these 2 people at that point. There was Actor/Entertainer Phil who was fun and boisterous, but there was also Recluse Phil who just wanted to be alone. To People magazine, she called him reclusive and passive. Lisa went on to say, “He would disappear emotionally. Phil’s body would be there, but he’d be in his own world. That passivity made you crazy. And when I protested, he’d say, ‘You’re getting in the way of my career, and this is who I am and what it’s going to be like.’”
Phil himself would later say in an interview, “I have a passive, people-pleasing, middle-child mentality.”
Lisa also recalled the moment she realized that their marriage was actually over. She said they had gone to Santa Barbara for their 1st wedding anniversary. She had tried to make the trip romantic and got dolled up in some “trashy” lingerie and hopped up on the bed. Phil looked at her and said, “Must you, really?” Deflated, she changed into her robe and got her book. They divorced in May of 1985 just about a year and a half after they married. However, Phil wasn’t single for long. He would meet Brynn Omdahl on a blind date.
Brynn Omdahl
Brynn Omdahl was actually born Vicki Jo Omdahl on April 11th, 1958 in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Her parents Donald “Donnie” Gene (an engineer) and Constance “Connie” Faye Omdahl (who ran a retail shop) had 4 children – Vicki Jo, Greg, Katherine, and Debbie. (Connie and Donnie.) As a child, Vicki Jo was described as funny and creative. Her brother said she always had lots of friends, and she was artistic. She also played the piano. Vicki Jo was pretty, but, in the words of her high school principal, “just another student, an ordinary young lady.” So, because she didn’t want to be “just another student,” Vicki Jo dropped out of high school.
After she left school, she quickly (5/20/77 – she was 19) married Douglas Torfin – a telephone operator, but unsurprisingly this relationship was short lived. After her failed marriage, Vicki Jo became Brynn and began modeling in Minneapolis before moving to California hoping to really take off. She was a Catalina swimsuit model and began taking acting lessons. She even briefly dated Rob Reiner, but throughout everything, she was insecure.
A friend of hers told People magazine that “she [Brynn] was always looking to find herself. When I met her, she was Vicki; then she became Vicki Jo, then Brindon, and then Brynn. I’d laugh and say, ‘Who are you this week?’” Her insecurity would be a very present throughout her life and partially contribute to her actions.
Phil and Brynn
On that fateful blind date, Phil followed his typical format and fell almost instantly into full blown love. Oddly though, a friend would say that the fact that Brynn had dated Rob Reiner would make her more “attractive” for Phil. However, like most 60s-70s models, Brynn had a problem with cocaine and alcohol. She would enter rehab multiple times, but none seemed to help her successfully kick the habit. While she was sober when they met, that didn’t last.
Mike Thomas who wrote You Might Remember Me From, an article about Phil Hartman in 2014 said, “When Phil met Brynn, he may well have been at his most vulnerable state in years — his 2nd marriage’s ending had shaken him, and his performing career wasn’t taking off. Omdahl was strikingly beautiful, and the affections of a statuesque blonde may have bolstered Hartman’s deflated self-image. But their relationship was bumpy from the get-go.”
Phil assured Brynn that if she stuck with him, she’d get the roles to help boost her acting career. Their relationship seemed to be built on wobbly foundations. He thought she was beautiful and would be great to have on his arm. She thought that hitching to his star would lead to her becoming a star with her own roles. At first they seemed to be a loving, romantic couple. They seemed great on the surface, but not long after their relationship began did it reveal it’s toxicity. The couple were frequently fighting, and when they weren’t fighting they were making up. Then they’d start the cycle again.
In 1986, Phil got the opportunity that would launch his career into the stratosphere. Phil got the opportunity to audition for a little show called Saturday Night Live (SNL). His audition went great, and he was hired for the 1986-1987 season.
SNL started in 1975 and in the 80s it started to get the reputation that it was struggling. The 70s SNL cast of Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Bill Murray, Laraine Newman, Michael O’Donoghue, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Garret Morris, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi were almost untouchable in their comedy skills. But they had moved on or in some cases were no longer with us (John Belushi died in 1982, Gilda Radner would die in 1989, Micheal O’Donoghue in 1994).
The new era of SNL had yet to impress, but then the ‘86 season brought in Phil Hartman. Joining Dana Carvey, Nora Dunn, Jan Hooks, John Lovitz, Dennis Miller, and Kevin Nealon. 38-year-old Phil quickly became known as “the Glue.” Lorne Michaels would say, “His nickname was ‘the Glue.’ He kind of held the show together. He gave to everybody and demanded very little. He was very low-maintenance.” Phil loved being on SNL. Julia Sweeney (who joined in 1990) said that she often got paired with Phil as his wife and got jokingly jealous when Jan Hooks was paired as his wife.
Phil did impersonations of Johnny Cash, Jim Baker, Jesus, Barbara Bush, Frank Sinatra, Ronald Reagan, Ed McMahon, and most prominently, Bill Clinton. He also created characters that became some of the most popular on the show like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. It was said that he had a “knack for seedy, self-important characters,” but they were still “loveable and fun.”
In the fall of 1987, Phil and Brynn got married in a very very small ceremony in New York. Friends of Phil’s were not thrilled with this and his friend from the Groundlings recalled that he had told her he was going to propose to Brynn. She exclaimed, “Oh, God! No!” The friend was asked to leave Phil’s office and she said they didn’t speak for 2 years. She also said, “It’s the first time – and, I think, the last time – I ever saw him angry.”
Brynn made her presence known in the SNL building. She would come in wearing bright red, revealing clothes and flirted with the writers with Phil right there. She had seen Phil’s SNL gig as a way for her to get screen time as well. In fact, in the opening credits of SNL, they let her be the blonde woman that Phil is talking to with her back to the screen, but when she would try to turn her head to get face time, the director would stop and tell her not to do that.
In 1988, the Hartman’s welcomed their first child; a boy named Sean Edward Hartman. Phil was over the moon! He loved being a dad and there are home videos of him being silly and playing Simon Says with them. Phil said in an interview, “What makes me happiest? Well, without question, it’s being a father.” Everyone was happy for Phil and Brynn. Including Phil’s ex-wife, Lisa. She and Phil had remained friends after their divorce, so she sent the new parents a card to congratulate them. Basically, her card said, “Much love, Aunt Lisa. Let me know if you need a babysitter.” Her well wishes and offer to babysit were met with a very different reaction than anyone expected.
Brynn wrote her a letter, 2-pages FRONT. AND. BACK. that snapped at Lisa to stay away from her and her family or she’d kill her. Lisa said that the letter was “hair curling” and full of rage and fury. Brynn told her that she never wanted to hear from Lisa again and threatened her not to contact her or Phil again. Lisa was understandably shocked and called Phil. Phil’s response was, “You should have seen the letter she wanted to send.” He brushed it off and called Brynn “intense.”
With SNL filming in New York and the Hartmans being based in California, the family would bounce between their apartment in New York and their house in Encino. Phil was fully killing it on Saturday Night Live and in 1989, he won an Emmy as part of the writing team for SNL. His Bill Clinton impression, specifically, was getting a great deal of air time. He was hitting up the late night talk shows as Bill.
In the early 90s, Phil became a full-fledged American citizen, but was still a frequent visitor to Canada.
In 1990, he also began working on The Simpsons as the voices of Troy McClure (C-List actor), Lionel Hutz (terrible lawyer), and Lyle Lanley (“charming conman”).
In 1992, the Hartmans welcomed a second child that was actually announced on air on SNL. Birgen Anika Hartman immediately stole her father’s heart. He called a friend and told them “she’s the most beautiful baby in the world” while getting choked up.
The Crumbling Facade
While Phil’s star was rising fast, his marriage was struggling. They had always been rocky and Brynn specifically, had been pretty unpredictable. Brynn reportedly showed up at the SNL studio once in a black cocktail dress and Phil went out to meet her down a long corridor. Despite the length of the corridor, people could see and hear them fighting. Their body language alone indicated anger. A former writer for SNL would tell the Last Days documentary that she walked into a bathroom in the studio and Brynn was just snorting coke. She said Brynn was very casual about it and even offered her some. She passed.
Brynn was very good at getting to Phil at just the right time. Typically, before a scene Phil would say the Lord’s Prayer to calm himself, but before rehearsals, he had a different, unwanted routine. Brynn would typically catch him before rehearsals and they’d fight and she’d just suck the life out of Phil.
A makeup artist that worked on Phil when they were on SNL said that once, Phil came to the chair and said his wife was threatening divorce because of his schedule. She was pissed that he wasn’t home more and wanted him to adjust his schedule. His schedule not only included SNL, but also commercials for McDonald’s and Cheetos as well as appearances on late night shows (he was on Letterman alone 13 times) and roles in movies. The McDonald’s commercial alone netted him a cool $1.2 mill!
Phil loved his work and loved SNL, but he was getting attention and Brynn wasn’t. Brynn’s desire to become famous in her own right was something that she wasn’t giving up on, and she was constantly on Phil to help her get roles. Phil was on the Howard Stern Show and he brought Brynn along to give her some exposure, but that wasn’t enough for her.
Meanwhile, Phil’s income was allowing him to splurge on grown man toys. He brought Bentleys, Ferraris, Mercedes, multiple boats, and even a private plane. These purchases were another thing that kept him aways from home. He would go to Catalina Island with his boats and he’d fly his plane, but Brynn wanted him home doing errands.
In 1994, Phil took a major step and left SNL after 8 seasons. On the last episode, the cast would do a version of So Long, Farewell from Sound of Music and in the end, it was just Phil and Chris Farley on stage with Phil singing goodbye to Chris and the world watching. The world loved him, but Brynn….Brynn was jealous. She was so insecure and still wanted roles.
Brynn’s brother said that Brynn would tell him that Phil would tell her that maybe he could ask around about getting her roles in things he was working on, but every time she asked if he had, Phil would tell her he forgot. A friend of Brynn’s said that Brynn wanted her own identity. She also said that Brynn had multiple plastic surgeries, and their nanny claimed some of the surgeries were Phil’s idea because he didn’t like her face being round.
After Phil left SNL, he worked on developing a variety show and the writers he was working with weren’t thrilled when he said he wanted to give Brynn a part on the show. The writers were like, but Jan Hooks…you guys have chemistry and a history on SNL, plus she’s funny and that’s proven. Is Brynn even funny? Phil’s answer wasn’t encouraging. He was adamant about Brynn, but he said she’s funny in her own way. Phil also talked about creating a sitcom with a role for Brynn, but neither the sitcom nor the variety show would even make it to the pilot stage because Phil got offered a role on a little show called NewsRadio. Brynn claimed he was doing this show because he didn’t want to work with her, and…….she was probably not necessarily wrong. Friends of Phil’s would call Brynn an “unsettling force.”
NewsRadio turned out to be a success. It started in 1995 with co-stars Vicki Lewis, Andy Dick, Maura Tierney, Joe Rogan, and Dave Foley. NewsRadio was a sitcom about a radio station and the goings on within. Phil played egomaniacal show host Bill McNeal. The character was another in Phil’s “smarmy” repertoire, but just like the others, he was also somehow lovable. Phil was making $50,000 per episode.
In 1997, Brynn’s substance abuse came back to the forefront. While she doesn’t seem to have really stopped, there may have been periods of sobriety. However, on Mother’s Day of that year, Brynn went out. When she came back, she was very intoxicated and not in a good place. Phil told her she had to go to rehab. She went and stayed the whole time, but when she returned she wasn’t sober long.
The couple were either at a party or having a party and Brynn found Andy Dick at the party. Andy was a drug addict at the time and he openly admits that, but he claims he had no idea that Brynn was an addict. When she came up to him to ask for a bump, he said sure and didn’t think about it any further. They were at a party and it’s the 90s. He had no clue that cocaine was an issue for Brynn.
Phil was furious at Brynn’s relapse (nothing said whether he knew Andy gave it to Brynn or how he felt about that). Phil told her that he was instituting a zero tolerance policy for her drug use. Brynn went to rehab for a couple days, but left because she wanted to be with her kids. Based on everything said by friends and family, Brynn was a great mom and she loved being with the kids. This trip to rehab was too long for her to be away from them in her mind.
Vicki Lewis said she started to notice that Phil would come to work looking really disheveled which wasn’t like him and she started noticing scratches on his face. Vicki wasn’t the only friend noticing these things. Phil had been secretly sneaking to visit his ex-wife Lisa. Not in a romantic way, but he had to sneak because Brynn was having him followed by a private investigator. He would have to park streets away and wear a hat and sunglasses to visit. The PI was supposed to follow Phil and his friend Britt (a guy) that he was always going to Catalina with to see if they were having women on the boat or if Phil was cheating at all. He never was. Britt said Phil was faithful.
Once, he went over to Lisa’s for lunch and they were talking about Brynn’s outburst and physical attacks on Phil. Lisa asked: She doesn’t have a gun does she? Phil told her that, yeah Brynn had a gun for protection. Lisa quipped, “Protection from what? You live in Encino.”
Even with Brynn’s tirades and spying, Phil’s career was doing well. Since he was considered “SNL royalty” he was invited back to host twice (considered one of the highest honors). Phil was in movies and voicing Simpsons characters and Brynn….Brynn was getting roles…as a waitress in the movie, North for a second and a bit part on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Phil told friends that Brynn just wasn’t cut out to be an actress.
But Phil never would say that to Brynn. He was non-confrontational and did whatever he could to avoid it. He’d smoke weed or take his plane to Catalina Island. He’d taken Brynn once, but the weather had been terrible and she’d gotten sick. A friend of Phil’s said that he probably did that on purpose so she wouldn’t want to come anymore. Catalina Island was quiet, and there weren’t a lot of people around. He could enjoy nature and not be Phil Hartman for a little while. He referred to his worship of nature as “almost a religion.”
Brynn didn’t see it that way. Brynn thought he was “distant,” and that he didn’t want to spend time with her. Brynn’s self-esteem took another hit when she turned 40 in April of 1998. Around this time, she was given the antidepressant, Zoloft by Sean’s (her 9-year-old) doctor.
This drug was newish in the 90s, but has since become much more commonplace for treating major depressive disorders, panic disorders, PTSD, anxiety, OCD, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. However, Brynn was pairing her Zoloft with cocaine and alcohol. According to drugpolicy.org, “using antidepressants (such as Prozac, Zoloft, Tofranil, etc.) with cocaine can increase the risk of “serotonin syndrome” – a condition when the brain is overloaded with serotonin. This can lead to excessive sweating, tremors, increased heartbeat and could also lead to seizures, shaking and shivering and sometimes death.”
Phil told his friend Wink about Brynn’s drug and alcohol abuse and that they fought all the time. Specifically, they fought more at night and to get her to leave him alone, Phil would go to their room and get in bed. Then he’d pretend to fall asleep or actually fall asleep, and eventually she would stop. By the next morning, she’d have calmed down and everything would be quiet again for a while. Brynn was telling her friends that Phil wouldn’t give her a divorce even though she’d been trying to get one for 2 years, but Phil’s friends all said that Phil wanted out.
Brynn’s brother, Greg disagrees with all of this and says that this isn’t at all what happened. He said that he talked to both Brynn and Phil frequently, and that they were going to a counselor that was helping them work through their issues. Greg says that the friends who say that they had been fighting more in the past six months are not accurate.
Greg was the only one reporting that they were working on their relationship or that they weren’t in a completely volatile situation. Friends of Phil’s reported that Brynn tended to get physically violent and it would get to the point that Phil would have to restrain her. In fact, Brynn’s behavior would cause a housekeeper to quit just 10 days before their deaths.
On May 4th, Phil would attend his very last press junket for his movie Small Soldiers. The movie would release in July of 1998, but that would be after Brynn had already murdered Phil and shot herself.
May 27th, 1998
On May 27th, 1998, Phil and his friend Britt were coming home from one of their usual trips. Phil dropped Britt off and headed back to his house to relieve the nanny for the night. Brynn had just gone out with a friend, and Phil was on Daddy Duty.
Brynn had gone out with her friend to Buca di Beppo around 7-7:30 pm. They were just about a block away from the house (1,000 feet). Brynn complained to her friend that she didn’t feel valued and that Phil isn’t concerned with her career and her aspirations. She claimed that Phil just wanted her taking care of the kids, but he didn’t care what she wanted. Brynn’s friend said that a couple times she would go to the bathroom and when she came out Brynn was on a payphone, and she appeared to be “agitated.”
Her friend decided to call it a night a little while later, but Brynn wasn’t ready to go home. Unwilling to stop her night out, Brynn drove to the house of her friend Ron Douglas. They were not in any sort of affair at the moment, but they had had a relationship in the past. Now they were just friends and apparently close enough friends that Brynn feels comfortable coming to his house randomly late at night drunk off her ass. It was about 10:15 pm when Brynn arrived and she and Ron had a few drinks while Brynn once again complained about her relationship with Phil. She didn’t like how much time he was spending with his friend, Britt. Ron said that she seemed “hopped up” and didn’t want to go home.
Brynn finally left Ron’s house around 12:45 am.
She drove home (I remind you, just piss drunk) and the kids are obviously in bed, but Sean remembers doors slamming and people yelling. Specifically, he heard someone yelling “SORRY, SORRY, SORRY.”
There was one source that said Brynn argued with Phil, because he was angry she had hit their daughter while Brynn was drunk. According to this source, Phil threatened to leave her if she started using drugs again or if she hurt the kids, and then he went to bed. However, since no one was home other than the kids it’s hard to believe that we would know what specifically they argued about that night. Perhaps this was a previous argument that was added to the narrative of the night?
Then around 3 am, with a Smith & Wesson .35 caliber, Brynn shoots Phil 3 times as he lay in bed. Between the eyes, in his throat, and in his chest. Ron Douglas later tells police that Brynn was back at his house around 3:45 am still very drunk. By now he was over her bullshit and wasn’t in the mood to deal with whatever she came to complain about.
When Ron opened the door, Brynn walked inside and said, “Don’t yell at me. Phil yells at me all the time.” Then, she told Ron that she killed Phil, and she doesn’t know why.
At first Ron didn’t believe her. He would later tell police that Brynn was “prone to dramatic and emotional outbursts,” but then she was digging in her purse looking for something and a gun tumbled out. Ron quickly got the gun and put it in the trunk of his car for safety.
At 5:45 am, they leave Ron’s in separate cars and head to the Hartmans’ house. Brynn took Ron into the house and into the master bedroom. That’s where Ron sees Phil and is finally convinced that Brynn did kill him. Ron stepped out of the bedroom and called 911. While Ron was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, Brynn was on a different phone in the bedroom and she closed the bedroom door. Ron tried to open the door, but it was locked. He could hear Brynn screaming and crying on the other side and talking to people on the phone.
Brynn was calling her family and friends and even neighbors and telling them that Phil was dead.
Once the LAPD arrives, Ron gets Sean and gets him out of the house. He also gives LAPD the gun that Brynn had had at his house. Brynn is still locked in the master bedroom with Phil’s dead body, so Ron also tells the LAPD that there’s also a little girl in the house.
LAPD enters the house to look for Birgen and they find her hiding under the blankets in the corner of her bed. Meanwhile, Brynn can probably tell that there is going to be an end to this soon and it’s not going to be good. She did just kill her husband and a beloved comedy icon. She called her sister and told her to make sure that the kids always know that she loves them.
Then she put a gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger.
Officers were still in the house retrieving Birgen when they heard the shot. They had to assume they had an active shooter so they got out of the house and surrounded it on the outside. They broke windows to enter the house and attempted to call out to Brynn from outside the master bedroom door, but when there’s no answer they breached the door and found 40-year-old Brynn Hartman’s lifeless body lying next to 49-year-old Phil Hartman’s body.
After their Deaths
Sean and Birgen were taken to the police station. Their parents’ bodies were zipped up in plastic shrouds and wheeled out on gurneys to the coroner’s van. They were orphans now, but they were far from alone. A friend of Phil’s went to the police station and asked if he could take the kids to the park across the street to get them out of the station. He took them over and talked to the kids a little. Sean told him that his mom had promised him that she was going to take him to all these fun places, but now she won’t be able to do that. Brigen was in shock and just said she was never going to see Mommy and Daddy again.
Brynn’s family was shocked too. This wasn’t like their sister, what happened?
In the Last Days documentary, Phil’s friend, Wink said thought it was a publicity stunt at first, but a bad one. He also said (through hysterical tears), “So selfish…how she could take him away from everybody.”
On June 4th, 1998, his cremated remains were spread on Catalina Island as stated in his will.
Everyone was in utter shock and many people were looking for someone to blame. Andy Dick took a hit for giving Brynn cocaine. Jon Lovitz was particularly convinced Andy was to blame for Brynn’s relapse and Andy said Jon whispered to him, “I know you killed Phil Hartman. You gave Brynn cocaine.” The incident where Andy Dick gave Brynn cocaine was 6 months prior to the murder-suicide.
On June 8, 1998, Brynn’s toxicology report was released. It showed that her blood alcohol level was .12%, and that she had Zoloft and cocaine in her system. According to alcohol.org, with a blood alcohol level of .10% , a person would typically have delayed reaction times and speech would be slurred. Thinking and reasoning would be slower and they would have trouble coordinating their arms and legs. This site says that a blood alcohol level of .15% is very high and the person would have significant difficulty with balance and their voluntary muscles (walking and talking would be difficult – falling and hurting yourself is very likely). It was noted that at this level vomiting might occur.
Not only was Brynn’s blood alcohol level in this high range, but she was also full of cocaine.
However, Zoloft became the scapegoat.
On May 28, 1999, exactly a year later, Greg (Brynn’s brother) sued Zoloft manufacturer, Pfizer. The suit claimed that Brynn’s use of Zoloft caused “her not to know what she was doing” and that Zoloft was a “substantial contributing factor.” Pfizer released a statement saying, “There was no medical or scientific evidence that Zoloft could cause violent or suicidal behavior.” They made no admission of guilt or wrongdoing, but they did reach a settlement of $100,000 basically to make the suit go away.
Phil Hartman was comedy gold and had a specific way of being a lovable asshole. The day he died, the Simpsons canceled rehearsal. They also decided to retire the characters he voiced because “no one can do those voices.”
Phil was also the first choice to provide the voice of Zapp Brannigan in Futurama, but he died before he could record any lines. The character of Phillip J. Fry is reportedly named after him.
His death was written into NewsRadio as a heart attack. His character had written letters to each of the other staffers in the make-believe radio station. The letters were provided for the first time to the actors/actresses on camera and their reactions while reading the letters were their true reactions. Filming was paused multiple times so the cast could compose themselves enough to continue.
NBC executive, Don Ohlymeyer said Phil “was blessed with a tremendous gift for creating characters that made people laugh. Everyone who had the pleasure of working with Phil knows that he was a man of tremendous warmth, a true professional and a loyal friend.” NewsRadio would attempt to continue shooting and tried to have Jon Lovitz step in, but the show wasn’t meant to go on without Phil so it was canceled after 5 seasons.
In the words of Andy Dick, “Never gonna be anybody that can fill his shoes.”
After his death, Phil’s hometown of Brantford, Ontario built a plaque on their little “Walk of Fame” to honor Phil and his career. Canada also honors him with an award for post-graduate students at Humber College Comedy: Writing and Performance in Toronto.
He also posthumously received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was revealed on August 26, 2014 with the help of past co-stars and friends.
Sean and Birgen stayed with Phil’s brother John for a little bit, but then they went to live with Brynn’s sister, Katherine who was already in the Hartmans’ wills as the godparent. They have mostly stayed in obscurity and even grew up under a different last name, but Greg said they grew up very loved.
Sean is 33-years-old now and has obtained his art degree. Now he is focused on becoming a musician and artist. Birgen is 29-years-old and married. She actually showed up for the SNL 40th anniversary in 2015. She and her husband started a business together and she is occasionally seen on Instagram. Birgen did post a photo of her and Phil for Father’s Day with the caption:
“This dapper dude will always have my heart. I miss him dearly.”
