Comedy writer Tom Davis passed away on Thursday of cancer of the tonsils. He was 59.
Davis was best known for being one half of Franken & Davis. The Franken in question, of course, now sits in the Senate. Davis & Franken were school mates in Minnesota and were discovered by Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels and hired the duo as writers for the fledgling NBC show.
Davis & Franken occasionally appeared on air as a comedy duo. However, Davis also enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Dan Aykroyd co-writing “The Coneheads” skits as well as a skit where poor Julia Child cut the dickens out of her finger.
After an absence of a decade, Davis returned to SNL in the early 1990s where his most notable skit was “The Continental” with frequent guest host Christopher Walken.
Here’s an interview Davis conducted a couple of years back.