Darrell Clayton Hammond (born October 8, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and announcer. He was a regular cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2009, and has been its announcer since 2014.
Upon his departure from the cast in 2009, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history. He has made more SNL appearances than any other cast member besides Kenan Thompson, and impersonated more than 107 celebrities, with Bill Clinton as his most frequent impression. On September 19, 2014, Hammond was announced as the new announcer of SNL, replacing Don Pardo, who had died the month before.
Hammond was born in Melbourne, Florida, the son of Margaret and Max Hammond. He was severely abused by his mother, contributing to his lifelong struggles with depression and substance abuse. Hammond's father, dealing with his own psychological problems resulting from his military service during World War II, often drank heavily and acted out violently. Hammond found as a child that doing impressions was the only thing he did his mother liked.
He played baseball in high school and at Brevard Community College. In high school, he was a teammate of future San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. He went on to attend the University of Florida, where he graduated in 1978 with a degree in advertising and a 2.1 GPA. He credits UF theater professor David Shelton for encouraging his work. After completing college, Hammond moved to New York City where he worked as a waiter, studied at HB Studio, played roles in theater productions, and performed one set at a comedy club at age 26. Hammond then returned to Florida where he was a radio DJ at BJ 105 FM, telling Howard Stern in 2002, "First I tried to be a jock, which I really sucked at," followed by being a voiceover artist in the Orlando area.
At 32 years old, Hammond moved back to New York to make one last attempt at being a stand-up comedian. After seven years and two failed Saturday Night Live auditions, he was spotted in 1995 by an SNL producer while doing a Bill Clinton impression - shortly after Phil Hartman, who had portrayed Clinton, left the show. After an exclusive audition for creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, Hammond was brought on board as a cast member and remained a cast member for 14 seasons. Before Kenan Thompson overtook him in 2017, he held the record as the longest-tenured cast member in SNL's history.
He also holds SNL records for the second most impressions by a single cast member (107, as of the Zac Efron/Yeah Yeah Yeahs episode), exceeded only by Thompson, and also for being the cast member who has uttered the iconic catchphrase "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" to start the show the highest number of times (76, beating out Dana Carvey).
He is best known on the show not only for his impersonations of Bill Clinton, but also of Al Gore, Donald Trump, John McCain, Regis Philbin, Dick Cheney, Chris Matthews, Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Dreyfuss, Phil Donahue, Phil McGraw, Ted Koppel, John Travolta, Jesse Jackson, Geraldo Rivera, Dan Rather, and Sean Connery, in the recurring "Celebrity Jeopardy!" skits. No one on SNL has done any one impression more than Hammond's Clinton, having impersonated him in 87 sketches over 14 years in the cast and in numerous additional cameos. Hammond also impersonated SNL announcer Don Pardo, filling in for Pardo on occasions when the announcer was unavailable.
Hammond initially planned to leave Saturday Night Live, after the conclusion of season 31, after 11 years, but many people at SNL, including his then-manager Bernie Brillstein, advised him to stay on. He describes his last three seasons as a difficult period, as all the writers who knew how to write for him had left by the start of his 12th season, and he wasn't assigned to portray any members of the incoming Obama administration.
After the end of SNL's 34th year, Hammond retired from the show after a record-breaking 14 years as a repertory player. Hammond was the last SNL cast member from the 1990s to leave the show.
In 2014, Hammond took over the announcer role on SNL starting with the 40th-season premiere, replacing Pardo, who had died a month prior. He was told by executive producer Lorne Michaels not to directly impersonate Pardo, so Hammond ended up using his own voice for the announcement gig. Since he began as announcer, he has also reprised his Clinton and Trump impersonations in several skits.
The following season Hammond reappeared on the show, doing his impression of Trump just as the real Trump began performing well in the Republican primaries. Hammond moved back to New York in 2016 after Trump won the nomination, expecting to be appearing on a weekly basis during the election. However, SNL producer Lorne Michaels decided instead to go with Alec Baldwin's impression, believing that it more effectively captured the contemporary Trump.
In the late 1980s, Hammond gained fame for his impersonations of Elmer Fudd and other Looney Tunes characters in the comedy single "Wappin'." The song was popular enough with Dr. Demento listeners to be included on the show's 20th-anniversary compilation.
Hammond is a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show. He has also guest-starred in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent;. He had his own stand-up comedy special on Comedy Central: Comedy Central Presents Darrell Hammond. Hammond can frequently be seen at The Comedy Cellar in New York City.
In the summer of 2007, Hammond made his Broadway theatre debut, playing the role of Vice Principal Douglas Panch in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In 2009, Hammond had a guest starring role on the FX drama Damages. The same summer, Hammond appeared with Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, and Donald Trump in an Oreo commercial, where he does an impression of Trump.
Beginning in May 2015, Hammond began playing the role of fast-food mascot Colonel Sanders in an ad campaign for KFC, until Norm Macdonald replaced him on August 17, 2015.
Since returning to Los Angeles in 2017, Hammond has appeared in episodes of Criminal Minds, At Home with Amy Sedaris, and a Friday Night Lights spoof series on sports website The Kicker.
Hammond married his wife, Elizabeth, on May 9, 1990. The couple divorced in the early 1990s, then remarried in 1997. They have a daughter together. During a 2012 appearance on the Imus in the Morning radio program, Hammond revealed that the couple was in the process of divorcing, and later that same year the divorce became final.
Hammond has admitted to struggling with alcoholism and cocaine addiction. The death of a close friend in 1991 led to a drug and alcohol relapse. Hammond regularly wears all black when not performing as an homage to another friend who died by suicide in 1992. After another relapse in 2009, Hammond went to rehab.