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Phil Hartman was one of Hollywood’s leading funny men. There was no impression he couldn’t make, no character he couldn’t bring to life on screen, from appearances on The Simpsons to skits on Saturday Night Live and roles in dozens of movies. 

Hartman was popular and loved, on and off screen, by fans, friends, and family alike, for his easy-going ways and ability to make people laugh.  

But there was nothing funny about what happened to the comedian in 1998. His wife of 11 years, Brynn, shot him to death in his sleep with their young children in the house.

According to police, friends, and witnesses, Brynn, who was also an actor and model, struggled with drinking and drugs and had a hard time playing second fiddle, in her mind, to her famous husband’s success. 

She could be a supportive, and loving wife and mother when she was sober, and a jealous, spiteful woman in a rage when she was not – which was often.    

Phil typically retreated into their bedroom after one of her rages. The confrontations were so contrary to his personality he usually went to sleep. Only this time Brynn refused to let it go and she shot him three times in the throat, head, and chest in a drunken fury, before driving to a friend’s house and confessing.

It wasn’t until they returned to the crime scene and the Hartman’s sleeping children that Brynn’s friends believed her and called police. Before anyone could stop her, she took her own life too.  

Join us for more on the tragic, behind the scenes drama in the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Heartless Hollywood Murder-Suicide: Phil and Brynn Hartman.”

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