Laraine Newman Siblings: Meet Paul Newman and Tracy Newman

Laraine Newman, an American actress, comedian, and writer, was born on March 2, 1952. Up until her retirement in 1980, Newman was a member of the original cast of Saturday Night Live on NBC, which has been running since 1975. In high school, she developed an interest in improv. She spent a year in Paris studying mime with Marcel Marceau after graduating. She later relocated to Los Angeles and joined the comic improvisational troupe The Groundlings as a founding member.

Lorne Michaels hired her for a Lily Tomlin TV special in 1974. The following year, Newman joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, where he created characters such as Connie Conehead, proto-Valley girl Sherry, and Christie Christina. She and the other original cast members of Saturday Night Live were inducted into the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame in 2017.

When she was 15, Newman began taking improv classes. At the age of 17, Newman gave up her virginity to Johnny Winter, an American singer, and guitarist. After graduating from high school, she auditioned for four acting schools in England, including the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the Bristol Old Vic. She was not accepted after the second round of auditions for all four schools, so she went to Paris for a year to study mime with Marcel Marceau.

By the age of 19, Newman had returned to the United States and relocated to Los Angeles, where she briefly attended a secretarial school. She was a founding member of the groundbreaking comedy improvisational group The Groundlings, and she was determined to continue performing. Simultaneously, Newman was typing up contracts for a booking agent who worked with rock bands.

Newman credits Eve Arden, Madeline Kahn, and Richard Pryor as her first major influences, saying, “They led me into my life of comedy, they led me into understanding ‘The Art of Play.’”