Eliot Wald (February 10, 1946 – July 12, 2003) was a comedy writer who worked for

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre op ...

improv group in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and for ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

'' before turning to movies. He and a partner, Andrew Kurtzman, wrote scripts for the television movie ''Hot Paint'' (1988) and for the films ''

See No Evil, Hear No Evil ''See No Evil, Hear No Evil'' is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller. The film stars Richard Pryor as a blind man and Gene Wilder as a deaf man who work together to thwart a trio of murderous thieves. This is the third film (in ...

'' (1989), ''

Camp Nowhere ''Camp Nowhere'' is a 1994 American adventure comedy film directed by Jonathan Prince, written by Andrew Kurtzman and Eliot Wald, and stars Christopher Lloyd, Jonathan Jackson and Jessica Alba in her film debut. Plot 12-year-old Morris "Mud" ...

'' (1994) and ''

Down Periscope ''Down Periscope'' is a 1996 American military comedy submarine film directed by David S. Ward, produced by Robert Lawrence, and starring Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, and Rob Schneider along with Bruce Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, William H. Macy ...

'' (1996). Wald grew up in the Bronx, graduated from

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

(1962) and

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of Ne ...

(B.A., 1967) and then moved to Chicago, where he wrote for underground papers and for

WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...

, the public television station in that city. At the station in 1975, he came up with the idea for a movie critics' show, the program that eventually became ''

Siskel & Ebert Gene Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) and Roger Ebert (June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013), collectively known as Siskel & Ebert, were American film critics known for their partnership on television lasting from 1975 to Siskel's d ...

'' and later ''

At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper ''At the Movies'' (originally ''Siskel & Ebert & the Movies'', and later ''At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper'') is an American movie review television program produced by Disney–ABC Domestic Television in which two film critics share the ...

.'' Wald joined the staff of the

Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty ...

to write for a youth-oriented section called Sidetracks. When the Daily News closed in 1978, he joined the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

, where he wrote about music, television and other topics before joining the writing staff of Second City. One of many Second City alums to join ''Saturday Night Live'', Wald contributed to the show in an era known for performances by

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

and

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

, often collaborating with another Chicago writer, Nate Herman. He lived and wrote in New York for five years before he and Kurtzman moved to Los Angeles. He was married to Jane Shay Wald, an intellectual property lawyer. Eliot Wald died in Los Angeles of cancer at age 57 in 2003.

External links

New York Times obituary, July 15, 2003

*
Tribute, includes origins of critics TV show
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wald, Eliot Hofstra University alumni The Bronx High School of Science alumni 1946 births 2003 deaths