Comedian, Curb your Enthusiasm star Richard Lewis dead at 76

Acclaimed comedian Richard Lewis has died. He was 76.

Lewis, who revealed he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2023, died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack, said his publicist Jeff Abraham. He was known for exploring his neuroses in frantic, stream-of-consciousness diatribes while dressed in all black, leading to his nickname, "The Prince of Pain."

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. He re-introduced himself to a new generation opposite fellow comedian Larry David in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, kvetching regularly.

"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," David said in a statement. "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."

Comedy Central named Lewis one of the top 50 standup comedians of all time, and he earned a berth in GQ's list of the "20th Century's Most Influential Humorists." He lent his humour for charity causes, including Comic Relief and Comedy Gives Back.

"Watching his standup is like sitting in on a very funny and often dark therapy session," the Los Angeles Times said in 2014. The Philadelphia City Paper called him "the Jimi Hendrix of monologists." 

Comedians took to social media Wednesday to share their thoughts.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Albert Brooks called Lewis "a brilliantly funny man who will missed by all. The world needed him now more than ever." 

Other tributes came from Bette Midler, Michael McKean and Paul Feig, who called Lewis "one of the funniest people on the planet."

'I never looked back'

Following his graduation from the Ohio State University in 1969, New York-born Lewis began his standup career, honing his craft on the circuit with other contemporaries who at the time were also just starting out, like Jay Leno, Freddie Prinze and Billy Crystal.

He recalled Rodney Dangerfield hiring him for $75 US to fill in at his New York club, Dangerfield's.

"I had a lot of great friends early on who believed in me, and I met pretty iconic people who really helped me, told me to keep working on my material. And I never looked back," he told the Gazette of Colorado Springs in 2010.

Unlike contemporary Robin Williams, Lewis allowed audiences into his world and his melancholy, pouring his torment and pain onto the stage. Fans favourably compared him to the groundbreaking comedian Lenny Bruce.

Singer Billy Joel has said he was referring to Lewis when he sang in My Life, of an old friend who "bought a ticket to the West Coast / Now he gives them a standup routine in L.A."

Lewis told GQ his signature look came incidentally, saying his obsession with dressing in black came from watching the television Western Have Gun – Will Travel, with a cowboy in all black, when he was a kid. He also popularized the term "from hell" — as in "the date from hell" or "the job from hell."

"That just came out of my brain one day, and I kept repeating it a lot for some reason. Same thing with the black clothes. I just felt really comfortable from the early [1980s] on and I never wore anything else. I never looked back."

After getting sober from drugs and alcohol in 1994, Lewis put out his 2008 memoir, The Other Great Depression — a collection of essay-style riffs on his life — and in 2015, Reflections from Hell: Richard Lewis' Guide On How Not To Live.

Finding a home in improv

Lewis was the youngest of three siblings — his brother was older than him by six years, and his sister by nine. His father died young and his mother had emotional problems, by his account.

"She didn't get me at all. I owe my career to my mother. I should have given her my agent's commission," he told the Washington Post in 2020.

"Looking back on it now, as a full-blown, middle-aged, functioning anxiety collector, I can admit without cringing that my parents had their fair share of tremendous qualities, yet, being human much of the day, had more than just a handful of flaws, as well," he wrote in his memoir.

Soon after, Lewis found a home and new family performing in New York's improv scene.

"I was 23, and all sorts of people were coming in and out and watching me, like Steve Allen and Bette Midler. David Brenner certainly took me under his wing," he was quoted as saying in a Los Angeles Times article. "To drive home to my little dump in New Jersey often knowing that Steve Allen said, 'You got it,' that validation kept me going in a big, big way." 

He had a cameo in Leaving Las Vegas, which led to his first major dramatic role as Jimmy Epstein, an addict fighting for his life, in the indie film Drunks. He played Don Rickles's son on one season of Daddy Dearest and a rabbi on 7th Heaven.

Lewis's recurring role on Curb Your Enthusiasm can be credited directly to his friendship with comedian, producer and series star Larry David. Both native Brooklynites — born in the same Brooklyn hospital — they first met and became friends as rivals while attending the same summer camp at age 13. He was cast from the beginning, bickering with David on unpaid bills and common courtesies.

He is survived by his wife, Joyce Lapinsky.