Comedian Garrett Morris was in serious condition Friday after being shot during a robbery attempt, police said.
Morris - a founding member of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players on "Saturday Night Live" and now in the TV comedy "Martin" - was shot in the arm and chest Thursday, police spokeswoman Sandra Castello said."We have every hope that he will fully recover," his wife, Freda Morris, said after he got out of surgery.
Morris, 57, who lives in Burbank, was visiting South Central to have his Cadillac detailed by a friend, according to his publicist, Rita Tateel.
He had gone to a local market and was walking back to his car when he was approached by two men who asked him for money, Castello said. When he said he had no money, they shot him with a 9 mm handgun, she said.
Morris began work on "Saturday Night Live" as a writer but moved on camera to create such popular characters as Chico Esquela, a Hispanic baseball player whose tag line was "Baseball been berry, berry good to me."
In "Martin," he plays Stan the ladies' man opposite Martin Lawrence, the wise-cracking Detroit radio host.