Comedian and actorBill Hadergave one of his best performances ever in aSaturday Night Livesketch from 2010. Hader was a regular cast member onSNLfor eight years, from 2005 to 2013, and his tenure with the sketch comedy show produced some of his most famous jokes. FromHader’s best moments as Stefon, the city correspondent who is often considered one ofHader’s bestSNLcharacters, to his more memorable single episode sketches like “What’s That Name?,” Hader was responsible for some of thebest skits inSNLhistory.SNL, however, wasn’t the end of Hader’s rise to fame.
Hader continued showing off his comedic prowess after leavingSNL, but he also branched out into a new genre: drama. In 2018, Hader starred as the eponymous character inBarry, a black comedy series about a hit man turned amateur actor.Barryproved that Hader could dominate in a mostly serious role, and it provided some of the best moments in his acting career. While there have been many high points in Hader’s career, one of the best performances came relatively early on, in a 2010 sketch fromSNLthat saw him do a now-famous impression.
Bill Hader’s Alan Alda Impression In SNL Was Scarily Spot-On
Hader Perfectly Mirrors Alda’s Inflections, Mannerisms, & Voice
In 2010,SNLdid a sketch about fake auditions by famous actors for roles inBack to the Future. Quite a few cast members did their best impressions of stars from the 1980s: Andy Samberg impersonated Nic Cage, Fred Armisten played the part of Prince, and more.One impression stood out among the rest, though: Bill Hader’s impression of Alan Alda auditioning for the role of Biff Tannen. Hader perfectly emulated Alda’s voice, but he also matched his mannerisms, his inflection, and even his look. It was such a good impression that Hader would go on to do it for years to come.
Alan Alda Became One Of Bill Hader’s Recurrent Impressions
Hader Does Several Impressive Impressions, But Alan Alda Is One Of His Best
In the years since hisSNLskit, Bill Hader has done his Alan Alda impression rather frequently.When Hader returned toSNLas a host in 2018, he revived his Alan Alda impression for another fake audition tape, this time forJurassic Park. In the sketch, Alda was trying out for the part of Robert Muldoon, the game warden for the park, and Hader was just as hilarious then as he had been eight years prior.
Hader also did his impression of Alan Alda semi-regularly on late night talk shows likeConan, where he also showed off some of his other impressions of celebrities like Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow. As Conan O’Brien mentioned, Alda is a very difficult person to imitate, but Hader is more than capable of mimicking him.
Bill Hader’s 9 Best Celebrity Impressions
One of the best former SNL cast members, Bill Hader has a massive talent for celebrity impressions, which include Al Pacino and Henry Winkler.
Bill Hader’s impressions, particularly of Alan Alda, highlight something about him: Hader has a huge amount of versatility in both his acting and comedy. He can go from the heartbreaking drama ofBarryto the goofy antics of Stefon and even stop for a moment to perfectly imitate any number of well-known actors along the way. His skills are a huge reason he’s found success in both comedy and drama even when he isn’t doing an impression. The fact that his Alan Alda impression showed off that versatility so well is one of the reasons it’s still one ofBill Hader’s best performances, 14 years later.
