RIP Richard Lewis

 

Richard Lewis Dies: Beloved Comic, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Actor Was 76

DEADLINE

By Greg Evans

February 28, 2024

 

Richard Lewis, one of America’s most beloved and revered stand-up comics who also played a fictionalized version of himself on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, died last night at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack. He was 76.

His death was confirmed by his publicist Jeff Abraham. Lewis had been living with Parkinson’s disease, a diagnosis he revealed in April, 2023.

“His wife, Joyce Lapinsky, thanks everyone for all the love, friendship and support and asks for privacy at this time,” Abraham said.

Lewis, who got his start in the New York and Los Angeles comedy scenes of the 1970s along with comics such as Andy Kaufman, Richard Belzer and Elayne Boosler and quickly became a favorite of late night shows including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, developed a singular stage persona nearly as dark as the all-black clothes he favored.

Self-deprecating, razor-sharp and brutally honest about his addictions and neurosis, Lewis was the rare comic who could rival the curmudgeonly but highly relatable outlook on life honed by his longtime pal and Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Larry David.

Making his acting debut in the 1979 NBC special Diary of a Young Comic, a 90 minute film aired in the Saturday Night Live slot, Lewis’ national profile grew significantly over the next two decades as his edgy observations were welcomed and celebrated by talk hosts David Letterman, Jay Leno and, on radio, Howard Stern.

TV comedy specials followed, his first Showtime special, pointedly titled I’m In Pain, aired in 1985. He became on of the premiere presences on HBO with comedy specials in 1988, 1990 and 1997.

Although his humor was hardly a fit for sitcoms of the era, he co-starred for several seasons in the late ’80s-early ’90s with Jamie Lee Curtis on Anything but Love, and with Don Rickles on 1993’s Daddy Dearest. In 1998 he co-starred with Kevin Nealon in the sitcom Hiller and Diller.

Film credits included 1993’s Robin Hood: Men in Tights, in which he played Prince John, and 1995’s Drunks. Also that year, he appeared in Leaving Las Vegas.

Lewis began what would arguably be his signature role – based, fittingly enough, on himself – in 2000 when he was cast by his childhood friend Larry David on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. The two New Yorkers had met at summer camp when they were 12 and re-established their friendship on the New York comedy circuit a decade later.

Although he largely retired from performing following his Parkinson’s diagnosis, he returned to Curb periodically, most recently during the show’s current (and final) season.

LEWIS, Richard (Richard Philip Lews)

Born: 6/29/1947, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.

Died: 2/28/2024, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.

 

Richard Lewis’ western – actor:

Wagon’s East – 1994 (Phil Taylor)