Phil Hartman Reportedly Shot Dead
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Actor Phil Hartman, who portrays radio newsman Bill McNeal in the NBC sitcom ``NewsRadio,'' and another man were shot to death in an Encino home this morning, KNX Radio reported.
The bodies of two men, both dead of gunshot wounds, were found in the house, police Detective Brent Josephson said.
Police and an ambulance responded to a call of shots fired at 6:21 a.m. at a home in the 5000 block of Encino Avenue, 15 miles west of Los Angeles, Josephson said.
Lt. George Rock told KNX that one of the dead was Hartman, who has a home in Encino.
Hartman got his break on the ``The Groundlings,'' which has produced such names as Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens), and Steve Guttenberg.
Hartman appeared on ``Saturday Night Live'' for eight seasons, which he found stressful. He told People magazine in a 1995 interview, ``The rejection and backstabbing could be painful but the hardest thing was competing against your friends for airtime.''