Jan Hooks

Southern-born, live-wire comedienne who, after regional stage and television experience and a stint as Tina, the tour guide at the Alamo in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" (1985), gained attention as an ideal cast regular on the iconoclastic NBC perennial, "Saturday Night Live". Best known for her outlandish yet on-target impersonations of figures from Tammy Faye Bakker and Diane Sawyer to Bette Davis and Ann-Margret, Hooks enjoyed personal triumphs when she essayed conflicting pairs of media notables (e.g. Ivana Trump and Marla Maples, Nancy Reagan and Kitty Dukakis). From 1991-93, Hooks left the rigors of live TV to join the cast of the Southern-fried sitcom, "Designing Women", playing the naive, countrified Carlene, sister of the similarly befuddled Charlene (Jean Smart, who left the series).