A recurring character throughout the run of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” Captain Carl is a rough-around-the-edges, raspy-voiced sea captain usually out on a sea voyage, when he’s not hanging out the Playhouse getting frustrated by Pee-wee’s silly shenanigans.

“Pee-wee’s Playhouse” was a television adaptation of “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” a theatrical presentation by the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, and member Phil Hartman played Captain Carl in the original production before reprising the role on TV. A close collaborator with co-star Paul Reubens, Hartman co-wrote the 1985 movie “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” released right around the time that Hartman began a nine-year run on “Saturday Night Live,” originating characters like Frankenstein, the Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, and the Anal Retentive professional, as well as impressions of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and Charlton Heston. “SNL” launched Hartman to major comedy star status, and he’d also co-star on the sitcom “NewsRadio,” as well as voice sleazy lawyer Lionel Hutz and washed-up actor Troy McClure on “The Simpsons.”

Investigating reported gunshots, police arrived at the Hartman family home in Encino, California, on the morning of May 28, 1998. As Phil and his wife Brynn Hartman’s children were being removed from the house, police heard another shot, and discovered Brynn’s body, who had died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and that of Phil Hartman, apparently shot to death while he slept. The comedian was 49.

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