Richard Lewis, best known for starring in the sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, has died. He was 76.
Variety has confirmed the star died after suffering a heart attack.
The comedian’s death follows after he announced in April last year he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and was retiring.
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Deadline reported the star’s death was confirmed by his publicist Jeff Abraham, who revealed the actor died overnight at his home in Los Angeles.
“His wife, Joyce Lapinsky, thanks everyone for all the love, friendship and support and asks for privacy at this time,” Abraham told the outlet.
Lewis was best known for his comedic role on the HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm, which he starred in alongside Larry David for 12 season since 1999.
A regular performer in clubs and on late-night TV for decades, Lewis also played Marty Gold, the romantic co-lead opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, in the ABC series Anything But Love and the reliably neurotic Prince John in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men In Tights.
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He re-introduced himself to a new generation opposite Larry David in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, kvetching regularly.
“I’m paranoid about everything in my life. Even at home. On my stationary bike, I have a rear-view mirror, which I’m not thrilled about,” he once joked onstage.
To Jimmy Kimmel he said: “This morning, I tried to go to bed. I couldn’t sleep. I counted sheep but I only had six of them and they all had hip replacements.”
Comedy Central named Lewis one of the top 50 stand-up comedians of all time and he earned a berth in GQ magazine’s list of the “20th Century’s Most Influential Humorists.” He lent his humor for charity causes, including Comic Relief and Comedy Gives Back.
“Watching his stand-up is like sitting in on a very funny and often dark therapy session,” the Los Angeles Times said in 2014.
The Philadelphia’s City Paper called him “the Jimi Hendrix of monologists.” Mel Brooks once said he “may just be the Franz Kafka of modern-day comedy.”