Who Was Phil Hartman's Wife? What to Know About Brynn Hartman, Who Shot and Killed the “SNL” Star Before Dying by Suicide
Who Was Phil Hartman's Wife? What to Know About Brynn Hartman, Who Shot and Killed the “SNL” Star Before Dying by Suicide
Emily BlackwoodFri, April 17, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC
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Phil Hartman & his wife Brynn at an HBO event in 1998.Credit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic -
Phil and Brynn Hartman got married in 1987 after meeting at a party
They were married for 10 years and welcomed two children together
In May 1998, Brynn fatally shot her husband while he was sleeping and died by suicide hours later
It's been almost three decades since Phil Hartman was fatally shot by his wife, Brynn Hartman.
The Saturday Night Live star had been married to the aspiring actress for 10 years when she killed him in his sleep on May 28, 1998. Brynn, who had struggled in the past with alcohol and cocaine abuse, died by suicide four hours later. They left behind two young children, 9-year-old Sean and 6-year-old Birgen.
“This is just a tragedy beyond description,” Rita Wilson, who costarred alongside Phil in the 1996 film Jingle All the Way, told PEOPLE in 1998. “Now two children are left without the two most important people in their lives, and with a lifetime of confusion.”
So, who was Phil Hartman's wife? Here's what to know about Brynn Hartman and her relationship with the late actor.
Brynn was an aspiring actress
Phil Hartman and Brynn Hartman, circa 1990's.Credit: Barry King/WireImage
The Minnesota native moved to Los Angeles in her 20s with dreams of being a model and actress, per ABC News. While she found work as a swimsuit model for Catalina swimwear, her acting career never took off.
Brynn was still an aspiring actress when she met Phil, according to the New York Post, and later went on to land small roles in the 1994 film North and the comedy series 3rd Rock from the Sun.
They met at a party
Phil Hartman and wife Brynn attend the Fifth Annual Project Robin Hood Food Drive to Benefit Love Is Feeding Everyone on June 26, 1993 in Hollywood, California.Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
When Phil and Brynn met at a party in 1985, the Simpsons actor was "at his most vulnerable state in years," Mike Thomas wrote in the 2014 biography You Might Remember Me: The Life and Times of Phil Hartman, per The New Yorker.
He was coming off the heels of the end of his second marriage to Lisa Jarvis, whom he had married in 1982. Phil was previously married to Gretchen Lewis from 1970 to 1972.
“As with Lisa, as with Gretchen, it becomes very intense very fast,” Thomas said of the actor's relationship with Brynn in a September 2019 interview with ABC News. “But as the months go on, the cracks begin to show and Phil does what he did with his last two relationships — he begins to withdraw emotionally."
He added, "They begin this pattern of fighting and making up and fighting and making up that would mark their relationship from there on out.”
Phil and Brynn married in 1987
Phil Hartman and wife Brynn Hartman during 1994 Emmy Awards in Los AngelesCredit: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
Two years after they met and a year after Phil joined SNL, the couple got married. At the time of their wedding, Brynn was pregnant with their son, Sean, per the New York Post.
Jarvis claimed that after she sent Phil a card congratulating him on being a father, Brynn sent her a death threat.
"The gist of it was, ‘Don't ever f---ing get near me or my family or I will hurt you,' " she later recalled to ABC News. "'I never want to hear from you…never, ever, ever come near us or you will really be sorry.' ”
They shared two kids
Phil Hartman, Brynn Hartman, daughter Birgen and son Sean pose for a portrait with Bugs Bunny during an event at Six Flags Magic Mountain in June 1995.Credit: Bill Nation/Sygma/Getty
Four years after welcoming Sean in 1988, the couple had their second child, Birgen.
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“I remember him calling me when Birgen was born,” Lynne Stewart, a friend of Phil's, told ABC News. “He was very, very choked up... He said, ‘She's the most beautiful baby in the world.' ”
After their parents died, Birgen and Sean were raised in the Midwest by Brynn's sister, Cathy, and her husband, per ABC News.
They've maintained private lives, with Sean pursuing a career in music and Birgen starting her own business.
Brynn struggled with alcoholism
Phil Hartman and Brynn Hartman attend the "Sgt. Bilko" Premiere on March 27, 1996 in Universal City, California.Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty
Brynn's brother, Greg Omdahl, told ABC News that she developed a cocaine addiction after she moved to L.A.
Though she was sober when she met Phil, her struggles with cocaine and alcohol abuse would continue to resurface throughout their marriage.
She had reportedly started drinking again after almost a decade of sobriety. At the time of the 1998 murder-suicide, Brynn had cocaine, alcohol and a prescription anti-depressant in her system, The New York Times reported.
She died by suicide after shooting Phil in 1998
A Police command post outside the home of Phil and Brynn Hartman on May 28, 1998 in Los Angeles, California.Credit: John Chapple/Getty
On May 28, 1998, Brynn and Phil allegedly got into a heated argument after she returned home from dinner with a friend.
Phil's friend and attorney Steven Small told PEOPLE that the actor “made it very clear that if she started using drugs again, that would end the relationship.”
Shortly after 3 a.m., Brynn shot her husband three times while he was asleep inside their Encino, Calif., home. Their two children were asleep in their bedrooms at the time of his death.
After the murder, Brynn contacted her friend Ron Douglas, who eventually came to her house and saw Phil dead. He was on the phone with the police when she locked herself in the bedroom with Phil's dead body.
Brynn shot herself in the mouth while lying next to Phil as officers entered their home.
His costars and friends remembered him fondly, gathering at the home of one of his SNL costars to honor his memory.
“Everyone was telling stories about Phil,” Ron del Barrio, Hartman's golf instructor, told PEOPLE of the gathering at the time. “But when they'd start to laugh, they'd immediately lose it. They couldn't believe they were talking like he was gone.”
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