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The cast of the early seasons of Saturday Night Live was packed with future comedy legends who went on to become superstars, but just as many whose careers never quite reached the same heights after they left the show. Garrett Morris, SNL's first Black cast member, falls somewhere in between those two groups. Though he never became a headliner like Bill Murray, Steve Martin, o mamaya,Eddie Murphy, his 1975 to 1980 stint on the popular variety series kicked off a career that has endured to this day. Keep reading to find out what happened to Morris after he left SNL, and what's keeping him busy now.

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Pagkatapos umalisSaturday Night Live in 1980 after 5 years on the show, Morris worked nonstop in films and on television—and no job proved too small, and no film too cheesy. He took on everything from the title role in the black comedy The Census Taker to a small role in the Richard Pryor comedy Kritikal na kondisyon.

He laughed about his willingness to do any project, including some B-movies, speaking to CBS News in 2014. "One of my horror movies was a thing called The Stuff," Morris recalled. It's [now] a cult favorite. And at the end, my head gets knocked off!"

On TV, he appeared in a string of classic '80s and '90s series, including Diff'rent Strokes, The Jeffersons, Murder She Wrote, Hill Street Blues, The Love Boat, and May-asawa na may mga anak, and played a smart-mouthed street informant in 28 episodes of the crime drama Hunter.

He spent the rest of the '90s doing long stints on two popular sitcoms. He appeared in more than 50 episodes of Martin between 1992 and 1995, and played Uncle Junior King on The Jamie Foxx Show from 1996 to 2001. In-between, he appeared on the big screen in the SNL spinoff film Coneheads, the low-budget superhero comedy Black Scorpion, and the indie hit Twin Falls, Idaho.

Since 2000, he's appeared in small roles in 16 films, most notably the 2015 Marvel hit Taong langgam—a nod to his having played the hero in an SNL sketch decades earlier. He also landed a lead role in the CBS sitcom Two Broke Girls playing Earl Washington, an ex-jazz musician turned diner cashier, playing the character for the show's entire six-season run.

Despite regularly landing jobs, Morris has dealt with some hard times. Even as his star was rising as a cast member on SNL, he was using drugs frequently, which made it hard for him to connect to his castmates.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

"I was very much an introvert," he told CBS News in 2014. "And I had a cocaine problem, too, which was adding to it. So a lot of what I did was counterproductive for myself in terms of really connecting with the group."

He struggled with addiction for 30 years before getting sober in 2005, sinabi niyaThe Hollywood Reporter in 2021.

Morris's time on the show Martin was cut short by tragedy after he was shot during a robbery attempt in 1994 and required the use of a wheelchair for several years afterward. While he was in the hospital, he learned his character had been cut from the series, Morris revealed in an interview with the Archive of American Television (per Comedy Hype).

Whenever he's not acting, Morris indulges in his two great loves: comedy and jazz. In 2005, he opened his own Los Angeles venue, the Garrett Morris' Downtown Blues & Comedy Club, where on weekends, he played master of ceremonies to a lineup of up-and-coming comics. After the club closed in 2016, he moved his show to L.A.'s Catalina Jazz Club.

A lifelong musician who studied classical music at Dillard University in New Orleans and played with the Harry Belafonte Singers in the 1950s, Morris also recorded two blues albums: 2014's Black Creole Chronicles and 2018's Pamana.

In 2007, Antonio Villaraigosa, then the mayor of Los Angeles, named the Downtown Blues and Comedy Club the official club of L.A. and proclaimed Feb. 9, 2007 as Garrett Morris Day, according to Fox News.

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Morris was 80 years old when 2 Broke Girls ended, but he didn't take the opportunity to slow down after that. He's recently appeared in episodes of MacGyver, Ito tayo, Scandal, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and the Netflix series Pagsasama-sama ng pamilya and Sariling gawa.

When CBS News asked whether he had plans to retire, Morris answered with a resounding no.

"Pinapanatili ko ito, alam mo?" sinabi niya. "Kung iniisip mo kung ano ang dapat mong gawin sa susunod na araw, ang iyong katawan ay sasabihin, 'Hayaan mo akong gawin upang gawin iyon,' tama? Kaya gusto ko ang aking katawan na panatilihin, 'ako gotta dito upang gawin iyon,' Hanggang sa 98 o 99 sinasabi nito, 'OK, hindi ako gonna gawin iyon pa, tama?' "

Kaugnay: Ang bituin na ito ay nagsabi Snl. Ang miyembro ng cast ay kung bakit hindi siya inanyayahan pabalik .