Richard Lewis, the stand-up comedian who first rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s for his dark, acerbic sense of humor, and who later parlayed that quality into a career as a comedian. actor who included films like “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” and a recurring role as him on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 76 years old.
His publicist, Jeff Abraham, said the cause was a heart attack. Mr. Lewis announced last year that he suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
Mr. Lewis was among the best-known names of a generation of comedians who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, marked by a sarcastic, world-weary wit that well reflected the urban malaise in which many of them plied their trade . .
After finding success as a comedian in New York nightclubs, he became a regular on late-night talk shows, beloved as much for his tight routine as for his relaxed, open affability as an interviewee . He appeared on “Late Night With David Letterman” 48 times.
And he was at the forefront of the stand-up boom that accompanied the expansion of cable television in the late 1980s.
Neurotic and self-deprecating, usually dressed in black, Mr. Lewis paced the stages of comedy clubs, bowing his head, pulling at his shock of dark hair, recounting his struggles in life and in love. He called himself the “Prince of Pain,” as did his legions of fans.
The titles of his many comedy specials from the 1980s say it all: “I’m Suffering,” “I’m Exhausted,” “I’m Doomed.”
He constructed some of his anecdotal passages around the idea of the worst possible version of an everyday character: the waiter from hell, the doctor from hell. In 2006, the Yale Book of Quotations honored him with an entry for “the ______ of hell”, which is credited to him.
He came to his art naturally – there was no need to simulate his misery – but also thanks to a keen attention to the anxiety-provoking and neurosis-triggering details of everyday life.
“I’m so crazy — I’m so obsessed with the show, but it’s who I am,” he told the New York Observer in 2007. “I’m so excited about my time on stage, my head is filled with images. It’s terrifying, but it’s also exhilarating. I will never work like that.
But it wasn’t an act. Part of Mr. Lewis’s appeal was his willingness to dig into his own wounds, drawing on his unhappy childhood, his unhappy love life and his daily bouts of gaping doubt.
If it hurt him to be so open – and it clearly did – it also fueled his success. He was one of the best-known stand-up comedians of the late 1980s. He performed to sold-out Carnegie Hall in 1989, receiving two standing ovations for two and a half hours of material.
“He didn’t assume character when he went on stage,” Billy Crystal, who invented Mr. Lewis on the New York comedy scene in the 1970s, said in an interview Wednesday. just hung out there. It was refreshing. Sometimes you could see the audience just wanting to say, “Slow down.” It’s going to be OK.'”
Mr. Lewis quickly turned his attention to acting. He starred as Marty Gold on the sitcom “Anything but Love,” alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, from 1989 to 1992. The series brought him critical and popular success and seemed to signal a move to Hollywood stardom.
But his follow-up show, “Daddy Dearest,” in which he played the son of fellow comic Don Rickles, was a bomb, and Mr. Lewis spent the next few years seeking small parts in films and one-liner roles. only episode in TV.
He had a leading role in the Mel Brooks comedy “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” (1993), but had to settle for small roles in films like “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995) and “Hugo Pool” (1997).
After two years of struggling to get acting roles, he returned to stand-up and toured the country with his show “Richard Lewis: The Magical Misery Tour,” which was seen as an HBO special in 1996 This earned him new attention from a new generation of comedy fans and a new chance to play small roles on television.
Many of his best television roles were on shows that shared his darkly humorous view of the world, like the animated series “The Simpsons” and “BoJack Horseman.”
Mr. Lewis has spoken openly about his problems with alcohol, drugs and depression. He got sober in the mid-1990s and wrote about his experience in his 2000 memoir, “The Other Great Depression: How I Overcome, Every Day, At Least a Million Addictions and Dysfunctions and Find a Spiritual Life ( Sometimes) “. .”
He revised the book, with a new foreword, and republished it in 2008. He also wrote “Reflections From Hell: Richard Lewis’ Guide on How Not to Live” (2015).
Starting in 1999, he had a regular role on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as the good friend and golfing buddy of Larry David, the star and creator of the series. He played a semi-fictionalized version of himself, a dour Eeyore who made Mr. David look like Christopher Robin.
Mr. Lewis has not appeared in every episode, but he has appeared regularly, including in the current season, the series’ last.
Richard Philip Lewis was born on June 29, 1947, in Brooklyn, in the same hospital as his friend and future co-star, Mr. David, and just three days before him. His family soon moved to Englewood, New Jersey. Her father, Bill Lewis, owned a kosher catering business, and her mother, Blanche (Goldberg) Lewis, performed in community theater, specializing in the characters of Jewish mothers in Neil Simon’s plays.
As Mr. Lewis often recounted in his stand-up routines, his family life was troubled. His father was never home and died when Richard was still young. Her mother was emotionally distant, with her own problems.
“I owe my career to my mother,” he told the Washington Post in 2020. “I should have given her my agent’s commission.”
He attended Ohio State University and, after earning a degree in marketing, returned to New Jersey. While trying his hand at comedy at night and writing material for other comedians, he worked by day as a copywriter and clerk at a sporting goods store.
He was unhappy. One day, he was in a deli with his friend and mentor, comedian David Brenner, complaining about his lack of success – and his lack of sleep.
“He said, ‘What do you need to be a full-time comedian?’ “,” Mr. Lewis told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1995. “I said a thousand dollars. He took out a check and gave it to me. I quit my job and never looked back.
He made his stand-up debut in 1971, at a club in Greenwich Village, and could be seen for the next decade sharing bills with comics like Jay Leno, Richard Belzer, Elayne Boosler and Robert Klein.
He made his acting debut in 1979, starring in the TV movie “Diary of a Young Comic,” which appeared on NBC as a replacement for “Saturday Night Live.”
As his career took off, Mr. Lewis moved to Los Angeles, although he frequently returns to his hometown.
“New York is my territory – I have so many friends in Manhattan,” he told the New York Observer in 2007. “And, tragically, so many relatives. »
He lived alone in a sprawling house above the Sunset Strip and remained proudly averse to long-term relationships until he met Joyce Lapinsky, who worked in music publishing. They dated for several years before Mr. Lewis, considering marriage, took her to his psychiatrist. “This is as good as it gets,” he often remembers the therapist’s words.
They married in 2005. She survives him, as does his brother Robert.
Mr. Lewis first met Mr. David when the two went to the same summer camp in upstate New York, although they did not get along. (“We hated each other,” Mr. Lewis told the Washington Post.)
They reconnected a decade later, when they were both struggling in comics in New York. This time, their friendship remained. When Mr. David, who helped create and write “Seinfeld,” decided to make a show built around his life, he asked Mr. Lewis to join him.
Mr. Lewis said yes, provided it was a recurring role. He went on to appear in 41 episodes, introducing him to another cohort of fans.
“Thanks to ‘Curb,’ I have three generations coming to my shows,” he said in a 2014 interview with the Street Roots website. “The demographic: There’ll be a 13-year-old, and then there’ll be a guy on a stretcher saying, ‘I wanted to see you before I die.'”
Mr Lewis suffered a series of injuries in the late 2010s, requiring surgery to his back and rotator cuff. He performed his last stand-up show in 2018 at Zanies in Chicago.
In 2023, after filming the final season of “Curb”, he announced that he had Parkinson’s disease. In a video statementhe said he would continue writing and performing as long as he could.
“I hope this doesn’t define me,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair published on February 18. “I’m a recovered drunk who has Parkinson’s, but I’m a comedian and an actor and an author and a writer. So I own it and I wear it that way. Of course, when I’m done this interview, I will break down, I will cry and I will start screaming. But why show you everything?
Orlando Mayorquin, Alex Traub and Michael S. Rosenwald contributed reporting.