Actress/comedienne Jan Hooks, best known for her days as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, passed away on Thursday of an undisclosed illness. She was 56.

Hooks was an integral part of yet underrated member of an SNL cast in the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s that included Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Dennis Miller, Kevin Nealon, Victoria Jackson and Nora Dunn. I thought she was consistently funny, particularly as one half of the Sweeney Sisters with Dunn. 

After SNL, she joined the cast of Designing Women and would appear in TV shows like Third Rock from the Sun and 30 Rock as well as movies like Batman Returns. At the time of her death, she hadn’t had an acting role in nearly four years and can only imagine this was due to whatever illness with which she was afflicted. 

She always left me with a laugh. If you can say that about someone then they’ve done some good in the world.