Richard Lewis, Comedian And Curb Your Enthusiasm Star, Has Died At 76

Richard Lewis, one of the most influential stand-up comedians of his era and Larry David’s hilariously neurotic best friend on HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has died at the age of 76. The official cause of death was listed as a heart attack.

Lewis belonged to a class of comedians who turned joke-telling into a confessional art form. His contemporaries were Richard Belzer, Elayne Boozler, Robert Klein, and Jerry Seinfeld. Lewis got belly laughs out of failed relationships, depression, anxiety, and addiction. He was reliably, identifiably miserable, which was a balm for anyone in his audience who happened to be struggling because, no matter how awful his life seemed to be, he was always back on stage the next night or bantering with David Letterman a week month later after recounting his latest crisis.

He was a neurotic’s neurotic, and, therefore, an essential part of our lives. If he could laugh off life’s absurd tortures, so could we.

Despite his dark demeanor, Lewis was handsome and charming enough to make a run at stardom. He was terrific for four seasons opposite Jamie Lee Curtis on the ABC sitcom “Anything But Love,” and was a familiar face in movies during the 1990s thanks to turns in “Once Upon a Crime,” “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and “Leaving Las Vegas.”

For many, he’ll be best remembered as a not-too-fictionalized version of himself on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which mined his long friendship with David for close-to-the-bone laughs. It’s impossible to imagine the show becoming a runaway success without their frequent bickering, and, frankly, it’s impossible to imagine a world where Lewis won’t be around to cushion the blow of life’s myriad cruelties.

More to come…