Christopher Walken came relatively late to SNL’s pantheon of great hosts.

Just saw another post about Walken, which got me thinking that he didn’t host for the first time until January of 1990, when he was 46.

46 is still relatively young, but it’s interesting how comparatively late in life he came to SNL, especially considering he had won an Academy Award in 1979 and had been an established actor all through the ‘80s.

Wikipedia confirmed that he was older than all other 5-timers were when they did their first SNL gig. (ie. no 5-timer has hosted their debut SNL gig later than age 46).

Why do you suppose he didn’t come to SNL earlier? I do find it kind of fascinating that, despite his late-coming, once he started hosting, he racked up appearances in relatively quick succession, becoming a 5-Timer in 2001 and hosting twice more after that and pretty much becoming a consensus SNL legend.