Don Pardo Biography

Fast Facts

• Was inducted into the Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2010
• Began his broadcasting career at WJAR in Rhode Island in 1939, where he was hired after the station manager heard his voice during a radio performance with the 20th Century Players
• Served as a war reporter for NBC during World War II
• Joined "Saturday Night Live" for the show's first episode in October 1975 and performed the introductions for 38 seasons, missing only one season in 1981
• Prior to "Saturday Night Live," he was an announcer for game shows like "The Price Is Right" and "Jeopardy!"
• Best known as a radio announcer who introduced the stars of "Saturday Night Live" in the beginning of every episode
• Collaborated with Frank Zappa in 1976 on the song "I'm the Slime" and others
• Continued to do the introductions for "Saturday Night Live" after he retired from NBC in 2004, flying to New York each week for several years and later recording his parts from his home in Tucson, Arizona
• Provided a voiceover for the "Weird Al" Yankovic parody song "I Lost on Jeopardy․"
• Was the first reporter on NBC to announce the assassination of President John F․ Kennedy, interrupting an episode of "Bachelor Father" to deliver the news