LOS ANGELES – Comedian Richard Lewis, who rose to fame with his neurotic, self-deprecating wit and later appeared for more than two decades alongside American actor Larry David on the hit HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000 to 2024), has died at 76, his publicist said on Feb 28.
The American comic, who disclosed in 2023 that he was battling Parkinson’s disease, died at his home in Los Angeles on Feb 27 evening after suffering a heart attack, his publicist Jeff Abraham said in a written statement.
“His wife, Joyce Lapinsky, thanks everyone for all the love, friendship and support and asks for privacy at this time,” Mr Abraham added.
David paid tribute to his long-time co-star in a written statement. “Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and, for most of my life, he’s been like a brother to me,” wrote the 76-year-old comedian.
“He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today, he made me sob and, for that, I’ll never forgive him.”
Brooklyn-born Lewis began performing stand-up comedy in the early 1970s while working a day job in advertising. By the end of the decade, he had risen to the forefront of his generation of comedians.
He was a regular on late-night talk shows through the 1980s, and starred alongside Jamie Lee Curtis as Marty Gold on the sitcom Anything But Love (1989 to 1992). The show won him critical and popular acclaim and seemed to signal a move to Hollywood stardom.
Curtis shared an emotional post on social media, along with some Anything But Love photos.
“I’ve just read that my friend Richard Lewis has died,” wrote the 65-year-old actress.
“I remember exactly where I was when I saw a billboard of Richard about a stand-up special on Sunset Boulevard when we were casting the ABC pilot Anything But Love, and asked the casting people to bring him in to audition to play my best friend/maybe boyfriend, Marty Gold.”
The Oscar-winning actress also credited Lewis with her sobriety. “He helped me. I am forever grateful to him for that act of grace alone. He found love with Joyce and, that, of course, besides his sobriety, is what mattered most to him,” Curtis added.
However, Lewis’ follow-up show, Daddy Dearest (1993), where he played the son of fellow comic Don Rickles, was a bomb, and Lewis spent the next several years seeking out bit parts in movies and single-episode roles on TV.
He had a prominent role in Mel Brooks’ comedy Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993), but otherwise, he had to settle for small roles in films such as Leaving Las Vegas (1995) and Hugo Pool (1997).
After two years of struggling to get acting roles, he returned to stand-up, travelling the country with his show Richard Lewis: The Magical Misery Tour, which was an HBO special in 1996. It brought him attention from a new generation of comedy fans and a fresh shot at bit parts in television.
Beginning in 2000, he had a regular role on Curb Your Enthusiasm as a good friend and golf buddy of David, the show’s star and creator. He played a semi-fictionalised version of himself, a dour Eeyore who made David’s otherwise prickly self seem like Christopher Robin.
Lewis did not appear in every episode, but he appeared regularly, including in the current season, the show’s last. REUTERS, NYTIMES
