Richard Lewis, who performed a model of himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Prince John in Robin Hood: Men In Tights, has died.
The comic, who was recognized for exploring his neuroses in frantic, stream-of-consciousness diatribes whereas wearing all-black – prompting his nickname The Prince Of Pain – was 76.
He died at his residence in Los Angeles on Tuesday night time after struggling a coronary heart assault, his publicist Jeff Abraham mentioned.
He had been recognized with Parkinson’s illness in 2023.
New York-born Lewis started his stand-up profession after graduating from The Ohio State University in 1969.
He was named one of many prime 50 stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central and was celebrated in GQ journal’s record of the “20th Century’s Most Influential Humourists”.
Lewis informed GQ his signature look got here from watching the TV Western present Have Gun – Will Travel, with a cowboy in all-black, when he was a baby.
He additionally popularised the time period “from hell” – as in “the job from hell” or “the date from hell”.
“That just came out of my brain one day and I kept repeating it a lot for some reason,” he mentioned. “Same thing with the black clothes. I just felt really comfortable from the early ’80s on and I never wore anything else. I never looked back.”
Lewis additionally lent his humour to charity causes, together with Comic Relief and Comedy Gives Back.
After he obtained sober from medication and alcohol in 1994, Lewis printed his 2008 memoir The Other Great Depression, which featured a group of fearless, essay-style riffs on his life.
His position in Curb Your Enthusiasm got here from his friendship with fellow comic, producer and collection star Larry David.
Both native Brooklynites – who had been born in the identical Brooklyn hospital – they met and have become mates as rivals whereas attending the identical summer time camp aged 13.
Lewis was solid from the start and bickered with David about unpaid payments and customary courtesies.
He additionally starred because the romantic co-lead reverse Jamie Lee Curtis within the collection Anything But Love and the neurotic Prince John in Robin Hood: Men In Tights.
Paying tribute in a mode applicable to the comedy they starred in collectively, Larry David mentioned in a press release launched to Sky News’s US companion NBC News: “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. 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.”
Source: information.sky.com”