Marc Wilmore
Marc Edward Wilmore (May 4, 1963 – January 30, 2021) was an American television writer, producer, actor, and comedian who was a writer and performer for shows such as In Living Color, The PJs, The Simpsons, and F Is for Family. He was a 10-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee.[1]
Marc Wilmore | |
---|---|
Born | Marc Edward Wilmore May 4, 1963 Fontana, California, U.S. |
Died | January 30, 2021 57) Pomona, California, U.S. | (aged
Occupation | Television writer, producer, actor, comedian |
Years active | 1992–2021 |
Relatives | Larry Wilmore (brother) |
Life and career
Marc Edward Wilmore was born on May 4, 1963,[2] to parents Betty and Larry[3][4] in Fontana, California. He had five siblings, one of whom, older brother Larry, is a television comic.[5] He was a graduate of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.[4]
In the early 1990s, Wilmore got a job as a writer on the sketch comedy series In Living Color. He was promoted to cast member during the show's final season.[4] Wilmore's impersonations included Robert Guillaume, Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, and various sketches which re-imagined various television series such as All in the Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show if they starred African-Americans. He received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for his work on the show.[1][4][6] After In Living Color, Wilmore wrote for The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno[4] and The PJs, a stop-motion adult sitcom co-created by his older brother Larry, where he also provided the voice of crooked police officer Walter Burkett.[7][8]
While working on The PJs, Wilmore participated in a prank organized by staff members of The Simpsons, where he pretended he was the mayor of East St. Louis, Illinois and angrily accosted writer Matt Selman over a joke that denigrated the city in the episode "They Saved Lisa's Brain". As compensation for his involvement with the joke, Wilmore was given a role in the season 11 episode "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", in which he played a psychologist.[9][10][11] Wilmore joined The Simpsons's writing staff in the show's thirteenth season, and received his first credit for the segment "Send in the Clones" in "Treehouse of Horror XIII".[11][12] He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program as a producer for the episode "Eternal Moonshine of the Simpson Mind" at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2008.[1] In the 2010s, Wilmore worked as a writer and executive producer on F Is for Family, an animated sitcom co-created by Michael Price, who had worked with him on The PJs and The Simpsons. Wilmore also provided several voices in the series.[4]
Death
Wilmore died at the age of 57 on January 30, 2021, at a hospital in Pomona, California. According to his brother, Larry, he died "while battling COVID and other conditions that have had him in pain for many years" during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[4] In The New York Times, Larry Wilmore related that his younger brother had long suffered health issues relating to a kidney transplant he had undergone in the 1990s.[2]
Credits
Year | Show | Role |
---|---|---|
1992–1994 | In Living Color | Writer, cast member[4] |
1995–1998 | The Tonight Show with Jay Leno | Writer[4] |
1999–2001 | The PJs | Writer Voice actor (Walter Burkett)[7] |
2000, 2002–2015 | The Simpsons | Writer Guest voice actor[4] |
2017–2020 | F Is for Family | Writer Executive producer Additional voices[4] |
References
- "Marc Wilmore – Emmys & Nominations". Emmys.com. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
- De Leon, Concepcion. "Marc Wilmore, a Television Comedy Writer and Producer, Dies at 57". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
- I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts. Hachette Books. 2015. p. Acknowledgments. ISBN 978-0316262811.
- Nordyke, Kimberly. "Marc Wilmore, TV Writer and Brother of Comedian Larry Wilmore, Dies at 57". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
- Wilmore, Larry (January 20, 2009). I'd Rather We Got Casinos: And Other Black Thoughts. ISBN 9781401309558. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
- Fuster, Jeremy. "Marc Wilmore, Brother of Larry Wilmore and 'F Is For Family' Writer, Dies at 57". The Wrap. Retrieved February 1, 2021.
- Hal Erickson (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: The shows, M-Z. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-2256-2.
- Bambi Haggins (2007). Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-soul America. Rutgers University Press. pp. 87–. ISBN 978-0-8135-3985-0.
- Evans, Bradford. "Talking to Longtime 'Simpsons' Writer Matt Selman". Vulture.
- Scully, Mike (2008). Commentary for "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge", in The Simpsons: The Eleventh Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- Scully, Mike. (2007). Commentary for "They Saved Lisa's Brain", in The Simpsons: The Complete Tenth Season [DVD]. 20th Century Fox.
- Karma Waltonen; Denise Du Vernay (August 30, 2019). The Simpsons' Beloved Springfield: Essays on the TV Series and Town That Are Part of Us All. McFarland. pp. 268–. ISBN 978-1-4766-3612-2.
External links
- Marc Wilmore at IMDb