Comic and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actor Richard Lewis dies at 76.
The comedian Richard Lewis in 2014: Image Credit: Wire Image
After becoming famous for his stand-up act, he appeared in movies and TV, most notably on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Richard Lewis, the stand-up comedian who became famous in the 1970s and ’80s for his acerbic, dark sense of humor, died on Tuesday at his Los Angeles home. He later became an actor, appearing in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” He was 76.
Lewis retired from stand-up in April and revealed he had Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with two years earlier, in a social media video.
His spokesman, Jeff Abraham, blamed a heart attack. Last year, Mr. Lewis declared his Parkinson’s.
“His wife, Joyce Lapinsky, thanks everyone for all the love, friendship, and support and asks for privacy at this time,” Abraham wrote in a tweet. New York-born Lewis studied Lenny Bruce’s riffing and neurotic crowd work and was often compared. Lewis, known as “The Prince of Pain,” typically took the punchline in his comic appearances.
His humor relies on honesty. Richard has a horrible connection with himself, like most comedians, but he can articulate it: ” In a 2020 Washington Post article by Lewis, David explained.
Lewis also wrote “The Other Great Depression,” a memoir about his battles with fame, drugs, and alcohol, and “Reflections from Hell,” a book with beautiful images that captured his dark comedy “premises.”
“Through the years, I learned who Richard really was and the gifts he gave,” stated Hines. “He was the comedian I loved, but he was also one of the most loving individuals I know. He spent time telling his loved ones what they meant to him, especially in recent years. In between Curb’s takes, he told me he loved and cherished me. Being loved by Richard Lewis. A true gift.”
Music superstar Ringo Starr sent Lewis’s wife a love note on social media. God bless Richard Lewis. Everyone will miss you, guy. I love Joyce. Love, peace, “Starr wrote. Lewis revealed in a 2009 interview that he met his wife through the former Beatles drummer.
Mr. Lewis performing as a standup in Las Vegas in 2005. Credit: Getty Images
Mr. Lewis was one of the most famous comedians of the 1970s and ’80s, whose world-weary, caustic wit reflected the metropolitan melancholy in which many of them worked.
Typically clad in black, neurotic, and self-deprecating, Mr. Lewis paced comedy clubs, drooping his head, plucking at his shock of black hair, and riffing on his life and love troubles. He called himself the “Prince of Pain,” and his devotees did too.
He developed his work by paying attention to the anxiety- and neurosis-inducing aspects of daily life and not feigning his unhappiness.
“I’m such a madman—I’m so obsessed with the show, but that’s who I am,” he told The New York Observer in 2007. The stage wires me, and my head is full of visions. It’s terrible and thrilling. This is my way of working forever.”
It was not an act, though. Mr. Lewis’s willingness to explore his personal wounds—his difficult background, dating life, and daily self-doubt—made him appealing.
Being so candid hurt him, but it helped him succeed. He was a famous late-80s stand-up comedian. A 1989 Carnegie Hall sold-out engagement earned him two standing ovations for two and a half hours.
“He didn’t assume a character when he walked up onstage,” Billy Crystal, who worked with Mr. Lewis in New York in the 1970s, said Wednesday. “He dragged himself up there. This was refreshing. Audiences sometimes want to say, “Slow down.” It’ll be OK.
Mr. Lewis immediately began acting. From 1989 until 1992, he played Marty Gold on “Anything but Love” with Jamie Lee Curtis. The show earned him critical and popular praise and seemed to launch his Hollywood career.
His second program, “Daddy Dearest,” in which he played Don Rickles’ son, was a flop, and Mr. Lewis spent the next few years picking up little parts in movies and one-episode TV assignments.
He played a major role in Mel Brooks’s 1993 comedy “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” but mostly played minor roles in films like “Leaving Las Vegas” (1995) and “Hugo Pool” (1997). After two years of attempting to get acting opportunities, he returned to stand-up and toured with “Richard Lewis: The Magical Misery Tour,” an HBO special in 1996. It introduced him to new comedic fans and granted him small television roles.
His dark, comic outlook on the world was reflected in his best TV roles on “The Simpsons” and “BoJack Horseman.”
Mr. Lewis openly discussed his drinking, drug, and depression issues. He wrote about his mid-1990s sobriety in his 2000 memoir, “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.”
He graduated from Ohio State University with a marketing degree and returned to New Jersey. He worked as an advertising copywriter and a sports goods shop clerk while trying his hand at comedy at night and writing for other comedians.
The man was miserable. In a delicate manner, he complained to his mentor and buddy, comic David Brenner, about his lack of success and sleep.
He said, ‘What do you need to be a comic full time?’ In 1995, Mr. Lewis told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “One thousand dollars. Suddenly, he handed me a check. I quit my work and never looked back.”
He debuted in 1971 at a Greenwich Village bar and performed alongside Jay Leno, Richard Belzer, Elayne Boosler, and Robert Klein throughout the next decade.
He made his acting debut in 1979’s made-for-TV film “Diary of a Young Comic,” which filled in for “Saturday Night Live” on NBC.
After his career took off, Mr. Lewis went to Los Angeles but frequently visited his hometown.
“New York is my home turf—II have so many friends in Manhattan,” he told The Observer in 2007. “And, tragically, so many relatives.”
He lived alone in a spacious property above the Sunset Strip and proudly avoided long-term partnerships until he met music publisher Joyce Lapinsky. After dating for years, Mr. Lewis took her to his doctor to explore marriage. He regularly heard the therapist comment, “This is as good as it gets.”
Mr. Lewis and Mr. David met at a summer camp in upstate New York, but they didn’t get along. (“We hated each other,” Mr. Lewis told The Washington Post.)
A decade later, when both were struggling with New York comics, they reunited. They stayed friends this time. Mr. David, who wrote “Seinfeld,” persuaded Mr. Lewis to join him in making a program about his life.
As long as it was reoccurring, Mr. Lewis agreed. He appeared in 41 episodes, gaining new followers. “Because of ‘Curb,’ I’ve got three generations coming to my shows,” he told Street Roots in 2014. “The demographic: a 13-year-old and a gurney-riding man saying, ‘I wanted to see you before I die.’”
In the late 2010s, Mr. Lewis had back and rotator cuff surgery. He performed his last stand-up act at Zanies in Chicago in 2018.
After shooting the final season of “Curb,” he revealed he had Parkinson’s in 2023. In a video statement, he stated he would write and act as long as possible.
“I’m hopeful that this doesn’t define me,” he told Vanity Fair on Feb. 18. “I’m a comedian, actor, author, and writer with Parkinson’s who recovered from drinking. I own it and wear it that way. Naturally, I’ll cry and shout after this interview. Why show you everything?
