Bernard Sahlins, the co-founder of one of the legendary comedy troupe Second City, has died at age 90. You might not know his name, but you definitely know some of the comedic talent he introduced to the world.
According to The Chicago Tribune, his wife, Jane Nicholl Sahlins, confirmed that he died peacefully at home on Sunday.
Sahlins, who was born in Chicago in 1922, was a major influence on American sketch comedy. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Gilda Radner and James and John Belushi are just a few of the talents he is credited with finding.
“Bernie's track record for discovering future Hollywood megastars was unmatched," Tim Kazurinsky, who Sahlins discovered, told the Tribune. “He probably was responsible for the greatest revolution in American comedy. You really can't exaggerate his contribution.”
The Associated Press reports that Sahlins first tried his hand at theater with a troupe in the early 1950s and he produced plays at the Studebaker Theater. But that enterprise folded in 1957 because of lack of funds. In 1959, he joined forces with Howard Alk and Paul Sills to open The Second City and the rest is history.
“We had been burned enough times doing that,” he wrote in his 2002 memoir Days and Nights at the Second City and about their early plans. “This was still the Beat generation, and we started out to found a coffee house where we idlers, including the actors whom we had with for years, could loll around and put the world in its proper place.”
When Saturday Night Live began in 1975, Second city became a practical farm system for the show.
Andrew Alexander, who currently co-owns Second City, told the AP, “You think about that theater, and think of all the stars that came out of it ... from Belushi to Aykroyd to Alan Arkin. It's extraordinary, the amount of talented people that came out of it.”