On the Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special the other night, one participant you might not have noticed (for he was seated in the audience, and at 5’2″ is easy to miss) was former cast member Tim Kazurinsky (b.1950), who turns 75 years old today.
Kazurinsky was part of the “rebound cast” on SNL, appearing on the show during seasons 7-9, from 1981 through 1984, alongside Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo, Tony Rosato, Christine Ebersole, Robin Duke, Mary Gross, and Brian Doyle-Murray (and later Gary Kroeger, husband-wife Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, and Jim Belushi). These were all capable performers, and you can see an effort on the part of producer Dick Ebersol to recapture some of the show’s original magic, for not only is there a heavy Chicago/Second City presence once again, but you’ve got the distinctly Belushi-esque Rosato in the mix as well as John Belushi’s and Bill Murray’s brothers. Kazurinsky had been hired at John Belushi’s instance, for he had mentored him at Second City Chicago and had cast him in his movies Continental Divide (1981) and Neighbors (1981). Later he would adapt David Mamet’s play Sexual Perversity in Chicago into the movie About Last Night…(1986) starring Jim Belushi, Rob Lowe, and Demi Moore, appearing in that as well. He was also in a couple of episodes of Belushi’s sitcom According to Jim.
Like most of the SNL cast of the early ’80s, Kazurinsky came off as more cute and cuddly than hilarious, a trait he doubled down on in the role of Sweetchuck in the Police Academy movies from 1985 through 1987. In those films he often interacted with Bobcat Goldthwait, whose movies Hot to Trot (1988) and Shakes the Clown (1991) he appeared in. Kazurinky’s main comic attribute was his tiny size, and his piping high-pitched voice, and this seemed to open the door to his career. Playing frightened or otherwise upset little men in bow-ties and glasses was his lane. Prior to success at Second City Chicago, he had been a local newspaper reporter in Western Pennsylvania, then a marketing copyrighter for a department store in St. Louise, then an ad man at Leo Burnett in Chicago.
Other credits: he co-wrote and appeared in a kid’s movie called Billions for Boris (1984) with Seth Green and Lee Grant, as well as the Sinbad vehicle The Cherokee Kid (1996), and Strange Relations (2001) starring Paul Reiser. As an actor he was in an all-star TV production of Dinner at Eight (1989), Jeff Garlin’s I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006), Scrooge and Marley (2012, as Marley), and Another Happy Day (2023) with Lauren Lapkus and Carrie Coons, as well as tv shows like Chicago Justice and Chicago Med. He’s also done tons of live regional theatre, in such things as The Odd Couple with George Wendt and Wicked (in the role of the Wizard).
He’s still a jobbing actor, based out of Chicago. Look him up here!
For more about show business history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, And please stay tuned for my upcoming Electric Vaudeville: A Century of Radio and TV Variety.