Curb Your Enthusiasm star Richard Lewis dies aged 76

Image source, Getty Images

By Madeline Halpert

BBC News, New York

Stand-up comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Richard Lewis has died aged 76.

Lewis announced last April that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and would retire from stand-up comedy.

He died peacefully in his home in Los Angeles Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack, his publicist, Jeff Abraham, told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Known for his self-deprecating humour, Lewis rose to prominence in the 1980s.

For years, the actor and writer starred alongside Larry David in his HBO show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, where he played a semi-fictionalized version of himself.

He had most recently appeared in Season 12 of the show, which is airing on HBO.

In a statement shared by Lewis’ publicist, his wife, Joyce Lapinsky, said she “thanks everyone for all the love, friendship and support and asks for privacy at this time”.

Nicknamed “The Prince of Pain”, Lewis was known for poking fun at his own neuroses and hypochondria during his comedy routines.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey, Lewis made a name for himself performing in clubs and on late-night TV.

Lewis had to take a break from starring in Season 11 of Curb Your Enthusiasm due to a series of surgeries.

“I’ve had sort of a rocky time,” he said last year announcing the news of his diagnosis.

He added that he had undergone back surgery, shoulder surgery, shoulder replacement surgery and hip replacement surgery. “I had four surgeries, back to back to back… It was bad luck, but it’s life.”

Lewis starred in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights and has also appeared in TV shows, including the sitcom Anything but Love, where he played opposite Jamie Lee Curtis from 1989 to 1992.

Comedy Central had called him one of the top 50 stand-up comedians of all time.

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