NEW YORK (AP) — Known for wearing all black and exploring his neuroses with stream-of-consciousness rants that earned him the nickname “Prince of Pain.” Renowned comedian Richard Lewis has died. He was 76 years old.
Lewis, who revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease He died Tuesday night at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack in 2023, publicist Jeff Abraham said.
A regular in clubs and on late-night TV for decades, Lewis played romantic co-lead Marty Gold opposite Jamie Lee Curtis on the ABC series “Anything But Love.” In “Mel Brooks,'' he played the definitely nervous Prince John. Robin Hood: Men in tights. ” He reintroduced himself to a new generation as opposite Larry David on HBO's “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” where he regularly makes sarcastic remarks.
“I'm paranoid about everything in life, even at home. My stationary bike has a rearview mirror, but I'm not very happy about it,” he once joked on stage. He told Jimmy Kimmel: “This morning I tried to go to sleep. I couldn't sleep. I counted the sheep and there were only six, and they all had hip replacements.”
Comedy Central named Lewis one of the top 50 stand-up comedians of all time, and he was included in GQ magazine's list of the “Most Influential Humorists of the 20th Century.” He used his humor to benefit charities such as “Comic Relief” and “Comedy Gives Back.”
In 2014, the Los Angeles Times said, “Watching his stand-up is like attending a highly entertaining and often dark therapy session.” Philadelphia's City Paper called him “the self-taught Jimi Hendrix.” Mel Brooks once said he was “perhaps the Franz Kafka of modern comedy.”
On Wednesday, comedians shared their thoughts on social media, including Albert Books, who described Lewis as “a wonderfully funny man who will be missed by everyone.” The world needs him now more than ever,” he said on X (formerly Twitter). Bette Midler, Michael McKean and Paul Feig also paid tribute, calling Lewis “one of the funniest people on the planet.”
After graduating from Ohio State University in 1969, the New York-born Lewis began a career in stand-up, honing his skills on the circuit alongside fellow fledgling contemporaries such as Jay Leno, Freddie Prinze and Billy Crystal. .
He recalled that Rodney Dangerfield hired him for $75 to fill a position at his New York club, the Dangerfields. “I had a lot of great friends who believed in me early on, and I met some very iconic people who really helped me and told me to keep working on my work. . And I never looked back,” he told the Colorado Springs, Colorado, Gazette in 2010.
Unlike his modern-day Robin Williams, Lewis immersed his audience in his world and melancholy, pouring his suffering and pain onto the stage. Fans compared him favorably to the groundbreaking comedian Lenny Bruce.
“I'm very careful not to be mean,” Lewis told the Palm Beach Post in 2007. I avoid it. That's not interesting to me. Tragedy is funny to other humorists, but not to me unless I can make a useful point. ”
Singer Billy Joel said he sang about Lewis in “My Life,” an old friend who “bought me a ticket to the West Coast/Now I'm giving them stand-up routines in LA.”
At Carnegie Hall in 1989, he appeared with a six-foot yellow legal sheet filled with material and taped together, earning two standing ovations during his two-and-a-half hour set. That night “was the highlight of my career,” he told The Washington Post in 2020.
Lewis told GQ that his signature look came about by chance, and that his obsession with wearing black began as a child when he watched the television western “Have Gun”, which featured cowboys dressed all in black. He said that it came from watching “Will Travel”. He also popularized the phrase “from hell,” as in “date from hell” and “job from hell.”
“One day it just popped into my head and somehow I kept repeating it over and over again. The same goes for black clothes. I've felt really comfortable in them since the early '80s, and I don't wear anything else other than that.” I never wore it. I never looked back.”
After getting sober from drugs and alcohol in 1994, Lewis published his memoirs The Other Great Depression (a collection of fearless essays) and Reflections from Hell in 2008.
Lewis was the youngest of three children. His brother was six years older than him and his sister was nine years older than him. His father died at a young age and his mother had mental problems. “She didn't understand me at all. I owe my career to her mother. She should have given her an agent's pay,” he told The Washington Post in 2020. told.
“Looking back now, as a full-fledged middle-aged and functioning anxiety collector, I can unflinchingly admit that my parents had their fair share of admirable qualities, but they still… “I had some flaws,” he wrote in his memoirs, “because I had spent so much of my time as a human being that I had some flaws.”
Lewis soon found a new family performing in improvisational groups in New York. “I was 23 years old and all kinds of people were coming and going and paying attention to me, like Steve Allen and Bette Midler. David Brenner certainly took me under his wing. As I drove home to a small dump in New Jersey, knowing that you said, 'I got it,' that validation propelled me forward in a big way.”
He had a cameo in “Leaving Las Vegas” and landed his first major dramatic role as Jimmy Epstein, an addict fighting for his life in the indie film “Drunks.” He played Don Rickles' son on one season of “Daddy Dearest” and a rabbi on “7th Heaven.”
Lewis' recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm was a result of his friendship with fellow comedian, producer, and series star Larry David. The two Brooklyn natives, who were both born in the same Brooklyn hospital, first met when they were attending the same summer camp at the age of 13, and became friends after rivals. He was chosen for the cast from the beginning and argued with David about unpaid bills and common courtesy.
He is survived by his wife, Joyce Lapinski;
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