Adam Sandler was just nominated for the Golden Globe for best actor in comedy or musical for Punch Drunk Love. He’s got a movie coming out later this year with Jack Nicholson. He’s certainly higher in the hierarchy of success, IMO, than Jane Curtin – despite her two hit sitcoms post SNL, Sandler has made megabucks at the box office.
Rob Schneider has made terrible, awful movies (and appeared in most if not all of Sandler’s terrible, awful movies) which do inexplicably well at the box office. He too ranks high on the success ladder.
It’s fair to say that both Joan Cusack and Ben Stiller first came to national prominence via SNL.
Dennis Miller just ended his long-running HBO show and has a development deal with the network for something new.
Chris Rock aso had his own HBO show, as well as many successful movies, and multiple Emmy awards for one of his HBO stand-up specials. He’s in the upper echelon of Black actors in Hollywood these days, commanding pretty big paychecks.
David Spade has had a number of successful movies and Just Shoot Me has a continued top 20-30 placement in the ratings.
Chevy Chase has done a bunch of hit movies, though nothing too successful recently, he also had his short-lived talk show.
Dan Aykroyd had a short-lived but incredibly funny sitcom and a number of successful movies though, again, nothing too recently.
Nancy Walls is now a regular cast member on The Daily Show on Comedy Central.
Damon Wayans was an SNL regular before “In Living Color” really vaulted him to fame. In between, he did a number of pretty good movies.
Martin Short has had a number of movies, had his own talk show, and now has the Jiminy Glick show on Comedy Central.
Jon Lovitz guest stars around, and is (if I recall correctly) the voice of one of the M&Ms.
Jim Breuer was or is hosting a series on Comedy Central.
Dana Carvey had his own talk show. Had his own open heart surgery and massive problems with it too, but he’s mended and coming back.
Norm McDonald shows up in a lot of Sandler flicks too, and got a few years in on his self-named sitcom.
Brad Hall is Mr. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss and produces her show (which is apparently coming back) and has done a number of other sitcoms.
Joan Cusack definitely came to prominence in Hollywood via her couple of seasons on SNL. Before that, her most well-known credit was “girl in neck brace” in Sixteen Candles.
Should we talk about Robert Downey, Jr.? His career has actually been quite good (a number of acclaimed films, an Oscar nom and Golden Globe win(s?) ) but we all know about his personal troubles.
Christine Ebersole moved in an entirely different direction post-SNL and won a Tony Award for her performance in 42nd Street last year.
Jan Hooks went on to a couple of years on “Designing Women” (albeit after it jumped the shark by all accounts) and pops up here and there these days like Jon Lovitz.
Laura Kightlinger is back on the stand-up circuit, but more importantly she’s now a writer on Will & Grace.
Laurie Metcalf became known in comedy circles via SNL. It certainly played a role in her getting her part on Roseanne.
Jay Mohr has had a few good movie roles, including the jackass boss in “Jerry Maguire” and he also had that great, controversial series “Action” which deserved better than it got.
There are a lot of recent cast members – Chris Kattan, Will Ferrell, Ana Gasteyer, Cheri Oteri and Molly Shannon – who are going to have to get a lot of work in to get anywhere close to the level of success of many of those who came before.
