Phil Hartman went to bed that night in May 1998 at his home in California. He would never open his eyes again.
Hours earlier, he had argued with his wife, Brynn. While he slept, she entered the room and shot him three times. Their two children, still very young, were sleeping at the end of the hallway, unaware of anything. Brynn drove to a friend’s house and confessed what she had done. He didn’t believe her, so she took him back and showed him the body.
The friend immediately called 911. When the police arrived and took the children out of the house, Brynn locked herself in the room next to her husband’s body and shot herself. Phil had just been chosen to voice a character in the animated series ‘Futurama’, but he never recorded a single line. Billy West, who inherited the role, later said that the protagonist bears his first name as a tribute: his name is Philip J. Fry.
