Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Danitra Vance of Saturday Night Live

Danitra Vance had the biggest break of her life when she became a cast member of "Saturday Night Live". The year was 1985. This was also the year Lorne Michaels returned as executive producer! However what seemed like a break turned into a nightmare.

The shows first episode got the worse reviews you can imagine! One reviewer said "Saturday Night Live has been known to go below the belt before but never like this with a chainsaw!"

Danitra Vance was a very talented actress! However the show you think she would shine in is the show that let her down! Her funniest moment on the show came on the Christmas episode! It was her and Damon Wayans! It was the cold opening! Its 12/24 and Danitra character is in a hurray and Damon Wayans is giving her a hard time! They ended up in a rap song! It was funny!

Danitra Vance ended up not coming back the following year! She biggest movie part came in 1988 when she was in the movie "Sticky Fingers".

She had a funny cameo in "The War of The Rose's". However in the 1990's Hollywood still seem to cast African Americans only as "Slaves & Maids". There were rare exceptions but not that many!

Unfortunately Danitra Vance died of cancer before "Hollywood" gave her a chance.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1990, Vance underwent a single mastectomy and incorporated the experience into a solo skit, "The Radical Girl's Guide to Radical Mastectomy." Unfortunately, the cancer recurred in 1993 and she died the following year at the age of 40.

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