The American comedian Richard Lewis, who participated in the successful comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO) in recent years, died at the age of 76 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Los Angeles this past Tuesday.
The actor also announced last April that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's and that he was retiring from comedy, so his last season in the production starring Larry David was his eleventh.
"I'm just focusing on writing and acting. I have Parkinson's, but I'm under the care of a doctor and everything is fine. I love my wife, I love my dog and I love all my friends and my fans," the performer said in a public statement.
Lewis (New York, 1947), very popular in the United States for his monologues and comedy specials for television, announced three years ago that he was leaving Curb Your Enthusiasm to recover from three operations, but surprised viewers with an episode in the eleventh season .
Richard Philip Lewis, the full name of the comedian and actor, graduated in Marketing and Corporate Communication from Ohio State University (USA) in 1969, but his passion was comedy, which is why he combined his work at an advertising agency. publicity with writing scripts for comedian Morty Gunty.
In 1971 he decided to perform his own jokes at a well-known comedy event in New York that made his name start to be heard loudly in the sector until he got the definitive push three years later with the talk show The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. from the NBC network.
From there he would begin to perfect his shows with the help of other renowned comedians on the scene such as David Brenner and Robert Klein, who took him on tour to dozens of cities and gained popularity that has accompanied him until his last days with full houses in venues. like Carnegie Hall in New York.
On television he also worked on the comedy specials I'm in Pain or The I'm Exhausted Concert during the 1980s, for which he was nominated as the funniest comedian on American television at the 1988 American Comedy Awards. .
As for the big screen, he had important roles in films such as Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and Leaving Las Vegas (1995).
