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Dana Carvey was born in Missoula in 1955. His family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area when he was young, and he grew up in San Carlos, Calif. Montana does not figure much in his comedy, but Missoula is on his birth certificate, and the city likes to remember it.
Carvey started doing stand-up in San Francisco in the late 1970s and worked his way into small film and television roles. His big break came in 1986, when he joined the cast of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
The SNL years
Carvey stayed on SNL until 1993, and his run is still considered one of the strongest in the show’s history. He created the Church Lady, the judgmental host of “Church Chat” whose catchphrase, “Isn’t that special?,” became part of everyday speech. He played Garth Algar opposite Mike Myers’ Wayne Campbell in “Wayne’s World,” which became two feature films. His impressions of President George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot were so well known that Bush invited him to the White House.
He won an Emmy Award in 1993 for outstanding individual performance in a variety or music program.
After SNL, Carvey had his own short-lived sketch show, made films and stand-up specials, and stepped back from show business for a time while recovering from heart surgery complications. In recent years he has co-hosted a popular podcast with fellow SNL alum David Spade and continued touring as a stand-up.
For Missoulians, he is one of a small list of famous people who were born there, and the one most likely to make you laugh.