Radner left SNL in 1980 and died tragically only nine years later, at age 42, of ovarian cancer. Though her post-SNL work didn’t quite reach the highs that her iconic run on the

I know what the ingredients are, but not the recipe,” Lorne Michaels told NBC executives, who were skeptical as he lined up actors he knew (see: Gilda Radner, star of a Canadian production of Godspell) and actors he didn’t (see: an Albanian American from Chicago named John Belushi).