Richard Lewis obit

Richard Lewis, Neurotic Comic and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Actor, Dies at 76

He also starred with Jamie Lee Curtis on 'Anything but Love,' with Don Rickles in 'Daddy Dearest' and as Prince John in 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights.' 

He was not on the list.

Richard Lewis, the master of self-deprecating comedy who whined his way to stardom with stand-up TV specials, a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall and turns on Anything but Love and Curb Your Enthusiasm, has died. He was 76.

Lewis died peacefully Tuesday night at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack, his publicist told The Hollywood Reporter. The actor and comic revealed in April that he had been living with Parkinson’s disease and was retiring from stand-up.

“For the last three-and-a-half years, I’ve had sort of a rocky time,” he said on social media when sharing his health woes publicly after wrapping Curb‘s 12th season, which would eventually be announced as the last for the Larry David HBO comedy. Lewis had stepped away in 2021, appearing on only one season 11 episode, and returned for the now-airing final season.

Lewis, who was dealing with illness while they filmed season 12, “was a champ,” the show’s executive producer Jeff Schaffer recently told THR. When discussing last week’s episode, which featured Lewis, Schaffer said he was “doing fantastic right now, I’m very happy to report. Having seen him for press and everything, he’s doing amazing.”

It was hard to name a neurosis that Lewis couldn’t mine for laughs. “I’m a major hypochondriac. I won’t even masturbate anymore. I’m afraid I might give myself something,” he once said, probably joking. He also called himself the “Descartes of Anxiety; I panic, therefore I am.” Appropriately, he almost always dressed in black.

Lewis paced nervously during his stand-up act, running his fingers through his hair and waving his arms with exasperation. He had a long problem with substance abuse, and he confessed to being high the night he performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1989. He said he had trouble remembering the standing ovations he received or anything else that happened during the 2 1/2-hour show, which he considered the apex of his career.

In 1991, after he mixed alcohol and drugs, he was rushed to the hospital, and the experience shocked him into sobriety. He would chronicle his recovery in his 2002 autobiography, The Other Great Depression: How I’m Overcoming, on a Daily Basis, at Least a Million Addictions and Dysfunctions and Finding a Spiritual (Sometimes) Life.

As an actor, Lewis also portrayed Prince John for Mel Brooks in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), played the psychologist son of a used car dealer (Don Rickles) on the 1993 Fox sitcom Daddy Dearest and was a rabbi from 2002-04 on The WB’s 7th Heaven.

Lewis, however, was at his best as a fictional version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He and David played transplanted New York stand-ups now living in Los Angeles on the HBO comedy.

“We are heartbroken,” an HBO spokesperson shared in a statement. “His comedic brilliance, wit and talent were unmatched. Richard will always be a cherished member of the HBO and Curb Your Enthusiasm families. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends and all the fans who could count on Richard to brighten their days with laughter.”

David shared his own statement following the news of Lewis’ death, writing: “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. 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.”

Running gags included making fun of Lewis’ past problems with substance abuse and his tendency to date beautiful women in search of “the one,” only to have David inadvertently destroy any chance of a relationship. (In real life, Lewis married in 2005.)

In “The End,” the final episode of Curb‘s fifth season, Lewis needs a kidney transplant, and both David and manager Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin) turn out to be a match. The two argue that the other should donate. After a life-changing moment, David decides he’ll make the sacrifice, but the surgery doesn’t go well, and David suffers life-threatening complications. Meanwhile, Lewis celebrates his new kidney by taking his latest girlfriend on vacation.

The fact that the two worked so well together was funny considering that they were at odds when they were younger. Lewis liked to joke that David attempted to strangle him using Lewis’ umbilical cord, and as teenagers, they attended the same summer sports camp and butted heads.

“I hated him,” Lewis told New Jersey Monthly in a 2015 interview. “We became friendly years later as young comics in New York, but I noticed something one night. ‘There’s something about you I hate,’ I told him. ‘Wait, you’re that Larry David from summer camp.’ And he said, ‘You’re that Richard Lewis.’ We nearly came to blows.”

Richard Philip Lewis was born in Brooklyn on June 29, 1947. He was raised in Englewood, New Jersey, where his father worked as a caterer. His mother performed in regional theater.

He didn’t look back on his childhood fondly. “It was pretty bad. I didn’t see my father much,” he said. “My dad was such a successful caterer that he was booked on my bar mitzvah — and I had my party on a Tuesday. Talk about low self-esteem. My father died young and my sister and brother moved out by the time I was in junior high. So it was me and my mother, and we didn’t get along too well. She didn’t get me.”

After graduating from Dwight Morrow High School in 1965, Lewis earned a degree in marketing and communications from Ohio State University, then went to work writing ad copy for an agency located above a pizza parlor in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.

At night, Lewis would write jokes, and he sold material to veteran New York comic Morty Gunty and others. That encouraged Lewis to develop his own act, and his father’s 1971 death prompted him to take to the stage. Soon, he was performing at such New York hotspots as The Improv and Pips Comedy Club. (Lewis credited David Brenner and Robert Klein for helping him hone his act, and he counted Jonathan Winters as a father figure.)

The Prince of Pain made it to Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1974 and gained traction with Diary of a Young Comic, a 1979 NBC telefilm produced by Lorne Michaels in which he played a Jewish comic who leaves New York to make a name for himself in Hollywood. When he doesn’t meet Lorne Greene right away, he orders a bacon, lettuce and calcium sandwich from a health food store.

In 1982, Lewis appeared for the first time on Late Night With David Letterman, and the host said he could stop by anytime he wanted.

“The reason that was so important to me … it wasn’t the material, it was my physicality,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 2018. “I was too much for the camera. I was moving all over the joint … [Letterman] sort of turned me into a younger version of Oscar Levant on [Jack Paar’s The Tonight Show], just sitting there, twitching away and just screaming for help in front of him.”

His TV specials included 1985’s ‘I’m in Pain’ Concert, 1988’s The I’m Exhausted Concert and 1990’s Richard Lewis: I’m Doomed.

Fearful he would forget a funny idea, Lewis constantly wrote down potential bits on a legal pad. He would tape the pages together and use them as a roadmap for a night’s performance. (Lewis even brought his taped pages to Carnegie Hall.)

“I’m such a madman — I’m so obsessed about the show, but that’s who I am,” he said during a 2007 interview with the New York Observer. “I’m just so wired by my time onstage, my head is filled with images. It’s terrifying, but it’s also exhilarating. I’ll never not work like this.”

On the big screen, he teamed with fellow stand-ups Louie Anderson, Richard Belzer, Franklin Ajaye and Tim Thomerson in The Wrong Guys (1988), then took on a co-starring role in 1989 on the ABC romantic sitcom Anything but Love.

Set in the offices of a Chicago magazine, Lewis played a veteran (and, yes, neurotic) columnist who found himself matching wits with a teacher turned writer (Jamie Lee Curtis). Though they try to keep their relationship professional, they can’t help but be attracted to each other.

“I had been a stand-up for a long time, but to get that big network primetime thing, that was great,” Lewis recalled in a 2007 interview with TV Guide. “All of a sudden I was on a promo in the middle of Roseanne, and before the end of the day, millions of people knew my face. It was just a whole other ballgame. So it was very important to me to have this series last.”

Anything but Love, never a ratings juggernaut, made it through four seasons before it was yanked in 1992. “It was historic actually, because we were canceled by our own studio [20th Century Fox, instead of the network],” Lewis told TV Guide. “It was a shocker. Jamie Lee and I drove up to the soundstage, ready for a Monday morning read-through of a new script, totally unaware that some higher-ups had decided we were done.”

In 1997, he starred with Kevin Nealon as goofball TV comedy writers on ABC’s Hiller and Diller (1997), but that was canceled after 13 episodes, then starred as a college basketball coach in Game Day (1999).

Lewis also appeared as recurring characters on TV’s Rude Awakening, ‘Til Death and Blunt Talk (as a shrink); guest-starred on The Larry Sanders Show, Tales From the Crypt, Two and a Half Men, George Lopez and Everybody Hates Chris; and appeared on the big screen in That’s Adequate (1987), Once Upon a Crime (1992), Wagons East (1994), Drunks (1995), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), The Elevator (1996), Hugo Pool (1997), Vamps (2012) and She’s Funny That Way (2014).

Survivors include his wife, Joyce.

 

Filmography

Film

Film work by Richard Lewis

Year     Title            Role

1988    The Wrong Guys            Richard

1989    That's Adequate            Pimples Lapedes

1992    Once Upon a Crime            Julian Peters

1993    Robin Hood: Men in Tights   Prince John

1994            Wagons East   Phil Taylor

1995    Drunks            Jim

Leaving Las Vegas   Peter

1996    The Elevator            Phil Milowski

1997    Hugo Pool     Chick Chicalini

The Maze            Markov

1999    Game Day      Steve Adler

2005    Sledge: The Untold Story    Himself

2012    Vamps            Danny

2014    She's Funny That Way     Al Finkelstein

2017    Sandy Wexler            Testimonial

2018    The Great Buster: A Celebration            Himself

 

Television

Television work by Richard Lewis

Year     Title            Role            Notes

1974–1992            The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson Himself – Guest            22 episodes

1979    Diary of a Young Comic  Billy Goldstein            Television movie

1980    House Calls     Dr. Leon Prometheus            Episode: "The Phantom of Kensington"

1982–1993            Late Night with David Letterman            Himself – Guest            48 episodes[20]

1985            Temporary Insanity            Performer            Television movie

1986    Riptide            Andrew Fitzsimmons Carlton III            Episode: "The Wedding Bell Blues"

1987    Harry            Richard Breskin 7 episodes

CBS Summer Playhouse            Joey            Episode: "King of the Building"

1988            Tattingers         Longo            Episode : "Death and Taxis"

1989–1992            Anything but Love            Marty Gold     56 episodes

1992    The Danger of Love            Edward Sanders            Television movie

1993    Daddy Dearest            Steven Mitchell            13 episodes

TriBeCa            Joseph            Episode: "Stepping Back"

The Larry Sanders Show            Himself            Episode: "Life Behind Larry"

1993–2008            Late Show with David Letterman            Himself – Guest            9 episodes

1994    Tales from the Crypt            Vern            Episode: "Whirlpool"

1995–2008            Late Night with Conan O'Brien            Himself – Guest            12 episodes

1995    A.J.'s Time Travelers            Edgar Allan Poe            Episode: "Edgar Allan Poe"

1996    A Weekend in the Country            Bobby Stein            Television movie

Nichols and May: Take Two     Himself            Documentary Special, PBS

1996–2015            The Daily Show            Himself            16 episodes

1997    Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child            Old Beggar (voice)            Episode: "The Golden Goose"

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist            Richard (voice)            Episode: "Undercover"

1997–1998            Hiller and Diller            Neil Diller    13 episodes

1998    Rude Awakening            Harve Schwartz            6 episodes

1999            Hercules            Neurosis (voice)            Episode: "Hercules and the Tiff on Olympus"

V.I.P.   Ronald Zane            Episode: "Big Top Val"

Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm            Himself            Television movie – Pilot

2000–2024            Curb Your Enthusiasm            Himself            41 episodes

2002            Presidio Med  Francis Weinod            Episode: "Once Upon a Family"

2002–2004            7th Heaven Rabbi Richard Glass            9 episodes

2003    Alias            Mitchell Yaeger            Episode: "A Dark Turn"

2004    Two and a Half Men            Stan            Episode: "I Can't Afford Hyenas"

The Dead Zone            Jack Jericho            Episode: "The Cold Hard Truth"

2005    Las Vegas   Stan            Episode: "Fake the Money and Run"

George Lopez            Phillip Nickleson            Episode: "George Finds Therapy Benny-ficial"

2006    The Simpsons            Golem (voice)            Episode: "Treehouse of Horror XVII"

Everybody Hates Chris            Kris            Episode: "Everybody Hates Kris"

2007    Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project Himself            Documentary, PBS

2008    Law & Order: Special Victims Unit            Sportsman Larry (voice)            Episode: "Closet"

2009    The Cleaner            Henry            Episode: "Trick Candles"

2009–2010            'Til Death   Miles Tunnicliff            3 episodes

2010    Funny or Die Presents            Shades (voice)            Episode: #1.10

2011    Lewis on Film: The Oscar Edition            Performer      Short

Pound Puppies            Buddy (voice)            Episode: "Rebel Without a Collar"

2013    Mel Brooks: Make Some Noise            Himself            Documentary Special, PBS

2015    Blunt Talk     Dr. Weiss   6 episodes

2016    Code Black   Stewart Gough            Episode: "Hero Complex"

2018    BoJack Horseman            Ziggy Abler (voice)            Episode: "Head in the Clouds"