The son of a plumbing-company heiress, Cornelius Crane Chase was nicknamed "Chevy" (after the wealthy Maryland community of the same name) by his grandmother. After graduating from Bard college with a BA in English, Chevy held down several jobs (tennis pro, truck driver, bartender) before seeking work as a comedy writer; throughout his twenties Chase wrote for the Smothers Brothers, National Lampoon, and (just once) Mad magazine. His performing career began with "Channel One," a New York-based comedy video workshop, which evolved into the 1974 feature film Groove Tube. Chase's quick wit and smart-alecky stage presence led to his being hired by producer Lorne Michaels for the first season of NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1975. Ostensibly an ensemble show, S.N.L. quickly became a star vehicle for Chase on the strength of his satirical "Weekend Update" news reports and also because of Chevy's spectacular slapstick falls and his devastating lampoons of President Gerald Ford. Chase left S.N.L. in 1976 to embark upon a movie career of variable success: for every huge hit like National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) there have been major misses like Nothing But Trouble(1991). His highly publicized return to TV as host of a late-night talk show for Fox resulted in one of 1993's biggest bombs, canceled less than two months after its debut. Taking an uncharacteristic "mea culpa" attitude for the disaster, Chase resumed his spotty but occasionally rewarding movie career.