Ahead of Her Maiden Saturday Night Live Hosting Gig, 21 Vintage Pictures of the Indomitable Jean Smart
I’m going to admit something here: I have never, not once, been normal about Jean Smart. Not when I was first introduced to her, as the voice of Kim Possible’s mom, on the Disney Channel; not when I saw her in Mare of Easttown; and not when I interviewed her and her Hacks costar Hannah Einbinder about the show’s third season and was so drawn in by their effortless wit that I tried too hard to be part of it and definitely came off very weird (sorry, ladies). Now, at 73 years old, Smart is set to host Saturday Night Live for the first time, and I, for one, will be seated.
Even to normal people, though, Smart is something of an acting legend; she first broke out playing Charlene Frazier Stillfield on your aunt’s (and my) favorite show Designing Women, and she has no fewer than six Emmys to her name for her performances on Frasier, Samantha Who?, and Hacks. (I also just found out via Wikipedia that Smart is a maternal descendant of Dorcas Hoar, one of the last women convicted of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials. Iconic lineage alert!) As the show celebrates its 50th anniversary, it’s shaping up to be a discourse-heavy SNL season, what with the presidential election forthcoming and the likes of John Mulaney and Chappell Roan due to appear. But personally, all I need in this life is Smart’s opening monologue.
Watch her already-hilarious SNL promo above, and then check out 21 vintage photos that prove Jean Smart has always been the coolest, hottest woman alive (in a way that not even the pervasive perm trend of the 1980s could damage):
Photo: Getty Images1/211983
In a promotional photo for the short-lived ABC sitcom Reggie, Smart’s first television series.
Photo: Getty Images2/211983
With Richard Mulligan in Reggie.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection3/211984
With Treat Williams (at far left) in William Tannen’s Flashpoint.
Photo: Getty Images4/211986
With her Designing Women co-stars Delta Burke, Dixie Carter, and Annie Potts. Smart starred on the series for five seasons, from 1986 to 1991.
Photo: Getty Images5/211989
In a promotional photo for the Season 4 Designing Women episode “The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century,” guest-starring Dolly Parton.
Photo: Getty Images6/211992
With her late husband, Richard Gilliland, at the West Hollywood premiere of Barry Primus’s Mistress.
Photo: Getty Images7/211992
On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Photo: Getty Images8/211993
In green plaid at a gala for the Starlight Children’s Foundation in Santa Monica.
Photo: Getty Images9/211995
At a screening for HBO’s The Tuskegee Airmen in West Hollywood.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection10/211995
With Christopher Daniel Barnes and Paul Sutera in The Brady Bunch Movie.
Photo: Getty Images11/211995
With Mary McDonnell in a promotional photo for the CBS sitcom High Society.
Photo: Getty Images12/211996
Well suited and red-headed in the TV movie Undue Influence with Brian Dennehy.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection13/211998
With Christine Baranski, Walter Matthau, and Jack Lemmon in The Odd Couple II.
- Photo: Getty Images14/21
2000
With Kelsey Grammer in a promotional image for the Frasier episode “Big Crane on Campus.” Smart’s arc on Frasier won her consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for outstanding guest actress in a comedy in 2000 and 2001.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection15/212002
With Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama.
Photo: Getty Images16/212002
Performing with Rita Wilson during a benefit for the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center in Los Angeles.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection17/212003
With Angus T. Jones and Kimberly J. Brown in the comedy Bringing Down the House.
Photo: Getty Images18/212003
At the world premire of Agent Cody Banks in West Hollywood.
Photo: Getty Images19/212004
In the TV movie A Very Married Christmas.
Photo: Getty Images20/212004
In Park City, Utah, for the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection21/212012
Opposite Meryl Streep in Hope Springs.
