In Memory of Famed 'Saturday Night Live' TV Announcer Don Pardo: 10 Years After His Tragic Death

Photo bymasslive.com

It's been ten years since famed radio and television announcer Don Pardo passed away at 96 years old. He was best known for his booming voice at the opening credits and periodically throughout episodes of NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) latenight show. But he also was a game-show staple including working on the original edition of Jeopardy.

In 2010, Pardo was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame - and with good reason.

As SNL icon Tina Fey once observed, “There was no greater thrill than hearing Don Pardo bellow your name for the first time in the opening credits of Saturday Night Live. It meant you were officially ‘on television.’”

As Pardo himself once noted, “My voice is my Achilles’ heel. When I get sick, it’s always my voice.”

A Closer Look

Dominick George Pardo was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, on February 22, 1918, and was raised in Norwich, Connecticut.

His father operated a small bakery and wanted his son to join the family business, but young Don declined. He wanted a bigger life, which began working as a ticket-taker at a local movie house.

Then, in 1942, after graduating from Boston’s Emerson College, Pardo commenced his vocal career at radio station WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island.

Two years later, he was hired by a supervisor at NBC immediately upon hearing his voice. He moved to NBC’s New York affiliate, and never left the network.

Pardo made his mark quickly, reading news dispatches on the radio filed from the front lines during World War II. After the war, he was the announcer for such shows as the Arthur Murray Party, Colgate Comedy Hour and Your Show of Shows.

In 1954, he was brought in to announce “Winner Takes All,” beginning a long run in game shows. He was heard forcefully on the original The Price is Right (1956-63) and the original Art-Fleming-hosted edition of Jeopardy!, which ran from 1964 to 1975.

In that final Jeopardy! year, NBC premiered the off-the-cuff Saturday Night Live weekend sketch/music series, which paired Pardo's retro charm with a contemporary view.

Pardo was with the series until his demise, except for an NBC misstep in the seventh season.

For several years in the 1980s, Pardo announced the local New York station’s Live at Five newscast — with his fetching, stretching trademark timber, saying things like, “Liiiiiiive at Fiiiiiive!”

Beyond SNL

Beyond lending his voice and a periodic on-screen appearance to Saturday Night Live, Don Pardo also showed up in several movies, like Woody Allen's Radio Days, mostly playing himself or an an announcer similar to himself.

Pardo also made a guest appearance in the world of music, on albums like Frank Zappa’s Zappa in New York (1978) and Weird Al Yankovic’s In 3-D (1984).

Lasting Impression

In 2004, Don Pardo retired from NBC, or so he thought. Shortly after, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels contacted him and asked if he would come back for three more weeks.

Pardo complied. And then Michaels contacted him again and asked if he would return for five more weeks, and so forth.

In the end, Pardo never really left the New York City-based show, to which he commuted each week from Tucson. In later years, he more frequently recorded his introductions from home, where he died peacefully, and was survived by five children.