SNL Writer Tom Davis Dies at 59

Tom Davis, one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live, died on Thursday at his home in Hudson, N.Y, the New York Times reports. He was 59.

Best known for his work with comedy partner and current Minnesota Senator Al Franken, Davis contributed off-beat, original stories during his many years on the show. White co-created The Coneheads, an iconic series of sketches about men with ten-inch foreheads.

He was born in Minneapolis in 1952, and attended the Blake School, where he and Mr. Franken became friends.

‘‘I visited Tom two weeks ago, and though he was deathly ill, we did a lot of laughing,’’ Franken said of his longtime collaborator. ‘‘He was a great friend, a good man, and so funny.’’

Davis retired in 1990, but wrote for SNL as late as 2003. He released a memoir titled Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL From Someone Who Was There in 2008.

Davis died of throat and neck cancer. He is survived by his wife, mother and brother.

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