Richard Lewis, Comedian and Curb Your Enthusiasm Star, Dies at 76

Richard Lewis, a beloved and influential stand-up comic whose career spanned over 50 years in comedy, movies, and TV, has died at the age of 76 after a heart attack.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in New Jersey, Lewis began his comedy career performing at open mic nights in Greenwich Village in 1971, becoming known for a neurotic persona and material heavily informed by his experiences with therapy. By the mid ’70s comedian David Brenner had become a sort of mentor, helping Lewis crack the L.A. club scene and get booked on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Lewis became a frequent guest on Carson and other late night talk shows, and was a prominent part of the stand-up boom of the ’70s and ’80s. A series of stand-up specials aired on Showtime and HBO in the ’80s and ’90s, and his success in stand-up led to a lead role in the 1989-1992 ABC sitcom Anything but Love opposite Jamie Lee Curtis. After Anything but Love wrapped, Lewis appeared in such movies as Leaving Las Vegas and the Mel Brooks parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He remained a regular guest on Letterman, Leno, Conan O’Brien, and The Daily Show, and popped up regularly in TV shows, including starring roles in a couple of short-lived ’90s sitcoms. Like many other comics of his era, he also became an author, writing the 2000 memoir The Other Great Depression and a 2015 book of jokes and one-liners called Reflections From Hell: Richard Lewis’ Guide on How Not to Live.

Beyond his stand-up, he’s perhaps best known today for his recurring role on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, playing a fictionalized version of himself. Lewis and David met in real life at summer camp when they were 12 years old, and later reconnected while pursuing stand-up careers. Their combative friendship has been one of Curb‘s great recurring bits over the show’s 12 seasons, with the two old friends and comedy vets constantly needling and insulting each other, and Lewis often bearing the brunt of David’s social impropriety. Lewis is currently appearing in Curb‘s 12th and final season, which is in progress on HBO.

Lewis’s death comes less than a year after he revealed he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2021. Parkinson’s put an end to his stand-up career and restricted him to only two appearances in Curb‘s 11th season; he returned to the show in the episode that premiered 10 days ago, on Sunday, Feb. 18.  In that episode Lewis told David he was putting him in his will; David, angry about a gesture he felt was unnecessary, turned it into an argument. It’s a funny scene made funnier, more powerful, and a good bit more sad today.

Lewis is survived by his wife, Joyce Lapinsky, and leaves behind a legendary body of stand-up that’s as funny and insightful today as it’s ever been.