Janet Vivian Hooks (April 23, 1957 – October 9, 2014) was an American actress and comedian. Hooks was best known for her tenure on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, where she was a repertory player from 1986 to 1991. Following her departure from SNL, she continued making cameo appearances until 1994. Her subsequent work included a regular role on the final two seasons of Designing Women, a recurring role on 3rd Rock from the Sun, and a number of other film and television roles, including on 30 Rock and The Simpsons. Early life Hooks was born and raised in Decatur, Georgia, where she attended Canby Lane Elementary School and Towers High School. In 1974, her junior year, she moved to Fort Myers, Florida, when her father, a Sears employee, was transferred. She attended Cypress Lake High School, made her stage debut in a play there, and graduated in 1975. She attended Edison State College where she majored in theatre, but left to pursue acting full-time. Career Hooks began her career as a member of the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe The Groundlings and in an Atlanta nightclub act called The Wits End Players. From 1980 to 1981, she appeared in Tush on Ted Turner's television station, WTBS, which eventually became TBS. She gained attention in the early 1980s on the HBO comedy series Not Necessarily the News and made guest appearances on Comedy Break with Mack & Jamie in the mid-1980s. She made her film debut in Pee-wee's Big Adventure as a know-it-all tour guide at the Alamo and appeared in the Goldie Hawn film Wildcats. In 1985, Hooks met with producer Lorne Michaels about a spot on Saturday Night Live, but was passed over in favor of Joan Cusack. After the show's 1985–86 season was deemed a ratings disaster and the show was put on the chopping block for cancellation, Michaels offered Hooks another chance. This time, despite a six-minute audition she called "brutal", she was offered a contract along with fellow new recruits Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Victoria Jackson and Kevin Nealon. They helped lead the show to a sustained ratings increase and a return to the national spotlight. Hooks's characters included Candy Sweeney of The Sweeney Sisters. She also played famous political wives of the era, including Nancy Reagan, Hillary Clinton, Kitty Dukakis, Betty Ford, and Elizabeth Dole, and did notable impressions of Bette Davis,