Jan Hooks, Cause of Death

Sadly, I'd come to more or less the same conclusion, for all the reasons you stated.

If true, I hope she went quickly and painlessly.

The New York Times cited cancer as the cause of death.

I just said in the other thread that I think she may have had a chronic illness and managed it with steroids that could have caused cancer.

But I'm not up on the dangers of specific steroids, so maybe that's not a likely scenario.

The NY Times neees to check its sources and read the quotes more carefully.

Its possible. Ive known a few people who did that: faced with a terminal disease and not wanting to endure the suffering so they checked out on their own terms. Cant say I blame them. I would probably do the same thing.

Suicide = no insurance for survivors

Ooooohhh!! Here's my theory, OP:

-She had cancer.

-You're an idiot who never knew her.

-SHE HAD CANCER.

R7, you're an idiot who never knew here either.

She had cancer, but that's not what her closet representatives and relatives have said was the cause of death.

I'm not saying anything bad about her; there's nothing in my post that makes any judgement about her or what choices she may have made for herself.

R6 made a very valid point and that could be the main reason they want to keep this quiet.

[quote]her closet representatives and relatives have said was the cause of death

Arrrrre you implying she vas un soft-a-ball playerrrrr?

R8, don't be obtuse. Of course you're making judgement. Ms. Hooks clearly preferred that the cause of her death be kept private. You've decided that that is silly and you're speculating in spite of her wishes.

She's dead. Does anything else really matter?

How in the world is it any of your business OP?

A person can have cancer, but cause of death can be from a complication.

My father-in-law had terminal cancer but his cause of death was emphysema.

My husband's cousin had reoccurring cancer but died suddenly from a brain aneurysm a couple days before she was to resume chemo treatments.

How dare you speculate on the death of Jan Hooks? Where do you think you are? This is DATALOUNGE and the Death of Jan Hooks is none of your beeswax!

We respect people here. Look at our threads about tv shows. Perfectly level headed conversation -- not one person in near-hysterics if someone doesn't like the show or one of the characters. We are well-balanced, respectful ladies and gentlemen who know where to draw the line. And we have drawn the line at discussing the death of Miss Hooks! Our boundaries have been stated. A spokesperson has announced her passing and we have accepted that she crossed the rainbow bridge and become another Angel in Heaven after many years if a serious illness.

Now leave it be, you hear? The woman was SICK. Now she's DEAD. Your curiosity ought to kill your cattiness!!!

This is why PAS needs to be legal in all 50 states.

I heard she accidentally hanged herself trying to get the last of her Girl Scout badges done and the family is trying to hush it up.

R7 covered it.

THREAD CLOSED

SHUT UP

SHUT UP

SHUT UP

SHUT UP

The topic is OVER.

Webmaster, please delete this thread.

MYOB, CUNTS

R4 "neees to check" ?

Is that needs to check, or knees to cheek?

[quote]We are well-balanced, respectful ladies and gentlemen who know where to draw the line.

Shit. Wait, where am I?

I'm SHOCKED to find people gossiping on DL!

She'd taken a weekend job at Bath & Body Works in Appleton when ANGELA showed up. The rest is history.

Obviously, ISIS beheaded her.

Marc Shaiman posted something on his Facebook wall that led me to think it was suicide.

Oh, wait! People DIE!? For real???

I bet she was picking her nose and struck a bone -- boom, instant aneurysm.

r6, I had a life insurance policy where they would pay for suicide, but you had to wait two years before taking your life. Guess they figure by then you'd forget about doing it.

We heard she jumped down the drain and committed sewercide.

Maybe the family is hoping to pass her suicide off as some kind of accident so they can collect in full. Like, if she took an overdose of drugs they can say, "She was in so much pain from her Serious Disease that she accidentally took too many pills."

Wow. What a bunch of hysterical drama queens.

OP makes a valid observation/speculation. Could be the case, might not.

It's DATALOUNGE, bitches.

You want legitimate speculation? - tune into CNN.

Meanwhile, unclutch.

There's no reason for single people with no children to have life insurance, so why would that even be an issue?

And any beneficiaries to other things (like pension plans, annuities, etc.) would get their benefits irrespective of the cause of death (unless they actually killed the person who died.)

All the comments about her being "troubled" by people who knew her made me think it might be suicide, too.

Why else even bring that up?

First off, if it was suicide and her family doesn't want that known, fuck Marc Shaiman for provoking gossip - attention whore.

Secondly, a similar think happened with Gilda Radner - she was doing well and working and all of a sudden she was dead, very unexpectedly. Cancer is not always predictable.

*Thing, not think.

Sewercide!

[quote] she was doing well and working and all of a sudden she was dead, very unexpectedly. Cancer is not always predictable.

Ovarian cancer is pretty predictable. Like Gilda Radner, most women do well after a few courses of chemo/radiation. The doctors often tell them, "We don't see any cancer!"

Unfortunately, "we don't see any cancer" is a bullshit statement. The cancer is still there -- it's microscopic and if the doctors pick the clearest spot to look, they won't "see" any cancer when they look.

Every woman I've ever known with ovarian cancer has died the way Gilda Radner did. A few courses of chemo/rad, they look better, feel better, think they have it beat.......and then they die. It's classic.

Very, very few women survive ovarian cancer. I wasn't at all surprised to hear Radner died. I feel sad if it was a surprise to Radner. Her doctors bullshitted her or else she wasn't listening carefully.

Think of Jackie Kennedy. Had cancer, but died "suddenly."

That means she was given a lethal dose of a drug because she had had enough.

[quote[First off, if it was suicide and her family doesn't want that known, fuck Marc Shaiman for provoking gossip - attention whore.

First of all, it's not even clear what he said. But even if he did say something: You're castigating him for provoking gossip, and you yourself are on a GOSSIP WEBFORUM?

Fuck you, you prissy and fucking hypocritical scold.

Since Jan's death has gotten a lot of attention, I'm sure the Enquirer will pay someone to find out what the cause of death was.

And I see Marc is back posting on DL again. Goodness.

I thought it was tacky of a public figure to use the opportunity of another public figure's death to shit on her memory as an excuse to talk about himself.

The truth will out.

We'll soon hear of Jan's "eccentricities." Her fear of the limelight which eventually became a fear of going outdoors. Her great love for privacy which eventually led her to no longer allow visitors into her home.....

[R30] >> You want legitimate speculation? - tune into CNN.

BWAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! "Legitmate Speculation" ... on CNN?????

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

That made me laugh so hard I think I hurt myself.

she was the Garbo of comedy.

[R33] Gilda Radner's situation was MUCH different. Everyone knew she was ill, and yes we all thought she was recovering.

Then the cancer came back very aggressively. She did not die a week later. It took a couple of months which is normal. During that period Gene Wilder kept the news quiet and didn't announce anything in part because of her privacy but also they didn't want a death watch since she was convinced until the very end that she'd beat the cancer and survive.

When she actually died, nobody played any games. They just plain and simple announced that she died from cancer and that was that.

OP's speculation is valid, only disagree on one thing - it actually is pretty common for cancer to work that way. A relative of ours - and this was the end of August we were speculating - we were hoping that he would make it through the holidays, and we thought we were being pessimistic even questioning that. As it turns out, he took a very sudden turn for the worse and died two weeks later. And hat has happened with a lot of people I know.

yes.

Re r37 -- even John Jr said "She went her own way." or something like that.

Ethel Kennedy smothered Jackie Onassis with a pillow to end her suffering.

Some said it was brutal; some, including our ex-sister-in-law Joan Kennedy, thought that we should have had Jackie's actual consent first. But Ethel has never shirked away from what she sees as her duty.

[quote]She died at home. Cancer patients don’t usually have such dramatic setbacks that they can go from being in reasonably good shape to dying in just a week or two. If that had been the case, she would have likely died in a hospital.

OP nailed it. Case closed.

We don't know, we weren't there!

Apparently, she was sick but doing better. Then she watched an episode of this season's "SNL" and lost the will to live.

R7 STILL covered it.

THREAD ***STILL*** CLOSED

ooooh W&W R52

STOP SPECULATING ABOUT JAN HOOKS!

STOP IT!

LEAVE JAN HOOKS' CORPSE ALONE!

She was very private so I think to say it was suicide is a leap. I think her reps should have been more forthcoming, though, because being vague about it will lead to rumors like this.

I met her one time. I was working at 20/20 video on Sunset Blvd. I complimented her on her SNL work and she kinda blew me off.

Maybe she was having a bad day, but it stuck me that she did not enjoy being recognized. This was circa 1994.

I still love her. Her and Maya Rudolph are the funniest women in the history of SNL.

[quote] Gilda Radner's situation was MUCH different. Everyone knew she was ill, and yes we all thought she was recovering.

That's because you didn't know anything about ovarian cancer survival rates.

Relatives of Jan Hooks are grieving the loss of the beloved New York comedienne, even as they feel relief that she’s no longer suffering from a long illness, a cousin told the Daily News on Friday.

“All I can say is that Jan was not well for quite some time,” cousin Susan Morgan Brown from Cedartown, Ga., said.

Brown declined to disclose the 57-year-old Hooks’ illness, deferring to the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member’s brother, Tom Hooks, 63, also from Georgia.

“We will miss her terribly, but it is gratifying to see the outpouring of good wishes from so many people online,” Tom Hooks said. He declined to discuss her illness.

-------

It was the Serious Illness!

I've got news: many deaths attributed to stage IV cancer are in fact from euthanasia. A slight increase in the morphine to "ease suffering" and they breathe their last.

The cancer would have taken them either way but its often either the effects of the chemo drugs or the painkillers that hasten the end. Its always attributed to end stage illness though.

If she was so private to the extreme and retreated from the limelight completely why did she continue to keep a publicist on a retainer? What would be the point of that except to piss away money?

I guess my curse worked.

OP = attention seeking rumormonger.

She was ill. She died. You know nothing about her so stop trying to spread a rumor that she committed suicide. Leave the woman and her family in peace.

"Cancer patients don’t usually have such dramatic setbacks that they can go from being in reasonably good shape to dying in just a week or two."

This isn't really true. Cancer patients can turn on a dime. Sadly, they are often more fragile than they might appear, and they can suddenly take a turn for the worse.

I'm impressed by the outpouring of love and admiration for Jan Hooks. She seems to have beat out Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, and even Whitney Houston in her postmortem popularity here on the Datalounge.

R64 That's what comes from quality vs. quantity.

GAVEL DOWN.

Maybe the illness was mental illness.

R64 I think a lot of has to do with the general affection here for that era of the show and it's an excuse to wax rhapsodic about it (which I'm more then glad to do). It also brings back memories of Phil Hartman's death.

r62, you mean there's a RUMORMONGER... on DATALOUNGE?!

I protest! No one comes here for idle rumors or gossip! Especially not about celebrities!

R6, not necessarily. Perhaps depends on the insurance company. These days ("these days" meaning, in my experience hearing about, perhaps the past 15-20 years; maybe more); these days most insurance policies have a 2-year exclusion for suicide. Meaning, as long as the insured isn't found to have committed suicide within the first two of years of taking out the policy, then the insurance co will pay out.

I know for a fact re Met Life; my brother and sister-in-law, a few weeks ago, got a check after the mid-August death of my niece; very likely a suicide. They took out the insurance policy in 1988 (long before she was diagnosed bipolar. THey were smart; a lot of people don't think of taking policies on their children.

Aren't death certificates public records?

R31, pleasantly beg to differ with you. A single person without children nevertheless STILL should have life insurance, to have $$$ available to whomever their beneficiary is, to bury (or cremate) them. My mother died in 1988, in a small town; the cost of cremation-memorial service was $1,500. Back THEN. Today, that same funeral home charges c. $4,000. For a cremation. As mentioned in another thread, my niece recently died; probably - but not definitely (results from toxicology due in Oct; real world is not like TV!) a suicide;at any rate, regardless of what she would have died of, the funeral home (in even a smaller town) charged my brother and SIL $8,000 for cremation and memorial service (and lovely PowerPoint presentation.)

Only because it's a small town, and the director is a friend of one of my SIL's countless nephews, my brother and SIL were allowed to pay after they got the insurance check.

I used to have a good insurance policy (my mother always said, "you should have enough money to bury yourself"); cashed it in like an IDIOT in 2005 when I was running through money; am waiting till maybe next year when can get an AARP policy AFTER I will have "not been in a hospital in the past 3 years."

I know a lot of people on this board are very good with $$; work full-time, have 401Ks with beneficiary designations, and the same insurance from their employer; for those of us less intelligent - a policy is good for our survivors.

SOrry to ramble.

[quote] If she was so private to the extreme and retreated from the limelight completely why did she continue to keep a publicist on a retainer?

To word her death press release so that it doesnt mention suicide.

OP, you're a fucking idiot if you don't think people with cancer can't have sudden, very quick downturns in their condition leading to death. It can happen in a few days, much less over a coule of weeks.

OP is also an idiot for not knowing that lots of live performers suffer from stage fright.

Some come to rely on boozing before a show (the Elaine Stritches of the world), some take a hit, more healthy people use relaxation techniques (stretch, yoga), some get the farts or hide in the bathroom with the runs.

But it is certainly nothing to remark upon.

Is The Serious Illness more deadly than The Ebola?

r72 = Debbie Downer.

[quote]even as they feel relief that she’s no longer suffering from a long illness...

To me, this is what people say about severely depressed people who commit suicide. Just saying.

Who will be the next DW cast member to go?

OP = Gladys Kravitz to the 10th power.

Many in the general public complained that the verbal death announcement about Robin Williams was too detailed. That was probably done to avoid rumormongering. Now his family won't have to listen to endless speculation the rest of their lives.

(And I'm not all criticizing this thread. And I don't think that Jan Hooks was famous enough for the speculation to continue for very long, but the thread does show the good judgement the authorities showed in fully disclosing the details of Robin's death.)

y'all bitches done forgot about me

R72 must be an insurance salesman.

never use insurance as an investment or savings tool

Insurance will still pay out on suicides but it's often limited in some way. For instance, you have to have held the policy for "X" number of years prior. And even in that case they usually will refund, not the insured amount but the amount paid in, minus expense fees, etc.

Can someone start a Jan Hooks II thread, so we can continue talking about SNL during her tenure there.

No one cares. She was incidental to SNL, even more so than Jane Curtain and she ruined Designing Women with a bad Jean Smart impression.

We're going to need a Jan Hooks XII thread eventually. Jan's hooks remain embedded in her fans and continue pumping venom even after death, just like a bee's stinger.

R86, someone already started another thread ...

RIP Jan Hooks, part II

R76, R77, R80 and almost all the other posts having a hissy about this discussion are all the same person who is also the tedious anti-semite racist who has disrupted other threads. :::rolling eyes:::

I agree while Julia Duffy at least brought something knew to Designing Women and was responsible for it achieving the highest ratings (It wound up #6 the year she was in it), Jan Hooks merely copied Jean Smart and badly at that.

Jan had some great episodes like Carlene's apartment and the All About Eve episode where the three women sing Carlene's hit song. I thought she was a lot dumber than Jean, and more cornpoke.

Julia was too cold and icy, and never had one great moment that whole year. But overall, the season was the highest rated out of them all.

When did Jan Hooks' family say she had cancer?

I hope she is at peace now.

[quote] Julia Duffy at least brought something knew

Oh, dear.

You are disgusting to discuss the death of anyone like this. Rest in peace Jan Hooks and prayers go to her family.

She just didn't have the career savvy some with half her talent have. Designing Women was not a good fit for her. She made a series of missteps, then kinda faded.

The Julie Duffy was probably high rated because of all the free publicity the show was getting from their feud with Delta Burke. It was one of the top entertainment stories at the time, plus the show was good and a hit. There were plenty more reasons to watch than Duffy. And they ended up firing her after only one season, so I guess she didn't go over that great with the public after all. Then Duffy immediately disappeared to obscurity, occasionally washing up in a Hallmark Channel movie.

She jumped off a highway overpass!

"WATCH OUT BELOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!"

Julia Duffy was great on Looking last season, as Groff's mother.

2014 took top talent Jan from us, but she is at peace. No more freaked out by showbiz bullshit

Sounds similar to situation in Susan Strasberg's death. And if Hooks was taking steroids, that may have affected her judgment.

She died literally laughing according to her brother.

I didn’t know Jan Hooks died.

My biggest, spontaneous MARY! moment. I was hanging out with a straight friend. I saw on Datalounge the topic "Jan Hooks died" and I let out an audible, spontaneous gasp. For a second, my friend thought we were under imminent nuclear attack, from my reaction.

Not as bad as the Lady Diana scream, but pretty bad.

A tremendous talent. I wonder if she was totally straight

Jan Hooks taught me that there’s no basement at the Alamo.

[quote]She died literally laughing according to her brother.

What was she laughing at? Was she contemplating her own future?

[quote] She's dead. Does anything else really matter?

[quote] How in the world is it any of your business OP?

Yes, gossip about celebrities is absolutely [bold]NOT[/bold] the business of Datalounge! You should know better!

[quote] I bet she was picking her nose and struck a bone -- boom, instant aneurysm.

Oh, that's physiologically impossible. You cant let old wives' tales like that be your guide in life.

I don't know why this very old thread has cropped up again, but I will say this about Jan Hooks: I loved her. She was a wonderful, funny human being, and if she did choose to end her life on her own terms, rather than let cancer work its way with her, then I support that absolutely. Why should such a funny, wonderful person , who brought joy to so many people, suffer?

If we are in charge of our own lives, we should be allowed to be in charge of the end, if possible.

She did not take her own life. As r103 said, she pretty much died while laughing. Her brother recounted all of this in a Grantland article. I suppose you could make the argument that she did slowly kill herself by the choices she made regarding her health. She was severely depressed and could not get out of the trap of self medicating, all of which negatively impacted her health to the point where there was no going back. That’s a dramatic MARY take, I know, but that’s just how I see it.

R97 Jan was hilarious on Designing Women. I loved her. It was Julia Duffy who was awful. She just didn't fit. First they made her mean then when that didn't go over they neutered her and she might as well not been there after that.

tl;dr @112, can a kind soul summarize it?

I wonder why she was so tortured? Did she have a traumatic childhood or did something happen in her adult life. I mean she essentially had a serious breakdown.

Was Jan bi? There were rumors

I’ve wondered about that too, R115. I think that losing Phil Hartman was pretty much the end of the line for her, emotionally speaking, but other things must have happened before that because I feel like she was slowly unraveling over an extended period of time. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts where Kevin Nealon talks about dating her and she seemed lost and deeply troubled even before they got on SNL.

[quote]r10 Ms. Hooks clearly preferred that the cause of her death be kept private.

She phoned this in from beyond the grave?

Dear, dear OP.

Do you have any evidence? No. I thought as much. You don’t have a theory, you have an opinion. A theory is evidence based. Yes, it’s all the rage to bandy words like “theory” around. It means something.

Let’s all try to use it correctly, and not in the made-up-I’m-a-fairy-princess-when-I-put-a-towel-on-my-head sort of way.

R117, from what I read about Jan , from a young age she loved to perform for others. She was a cheerleader and big in the theater groups. She was very popular in high school. I read one comment from a lady who was in her graduating class and said the girls wanted to be Jan, and all the guys wanted to date her. So she was extroverted at one time. I know the death of her mother who died either right before SNL or during obviously crushed her. She was very sensitive and I wonder if she had an underlying mental illness brought on by trauma?

Was Kevin her only boyfriend? I wonder if she had intimacy or trust issues? That certainly can happen from childhood abuse

She was in love with Phil Hartman. The trauma of his wife murdering him would be a big setback for a cancer patient

Jan was way too quirky for Phil

Did Jan have cancer when Phil died?

I wonder if Jan and Phil are soulmates in the next world.

[quote]Did Jan have cancer when Phil died?

Though not mentioned in the Grantland article, Jan had a bout with breast cancer in the 90s. I'm not sure if she was in remission or not when Phil died.

[quote]Jan was way too quirky for Phil

Perhaps, but she was also very needy and Phil loved to be needed.

[quote]Was Kevin her only boyfriend?

She dated an artist, Dan Rizzie, during her Designing Women years. I don't know that she dated anyone seriously after that.