(New York) American comedian Richard Lewis, who explored his neuroses in frenetic diatribes, dressed all in black – which earned him his nickname “Prince of Pain” – died Tuesday at the age of 76 .
Richard Lewis revealed in 2023 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He died Tuesday evening at his home in Los Angeles following a heart attack, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham.
A regular comedian for decades on American bars and late-night talk shows, Richard Lewis also played Marty Gold, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis, in the ABC romantic comedy Anything But Love. He was also “Prince John” in Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood” at the cinema.
But he has more recently been known to a new generation by making regular appearances alongside Larry David in the television series Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO.
Comedy Central named him one of the top 50 comedians in the world. stand-up all time. Mel Brooks once said of him that he “could well be the Franz Kafka of modern comedy”.
Born in New York, Lewis began a career as stand-up perfecting his humor on the circuit with fellow newbies like Jay Leno, Freddie Prinze and Billy Crystal.
Unlike his contemporary Robin Williams, Lewis let the audience into his world and his melancholy, pouring out his own torments and pain on stage. His admirers compared him to the revolutionary comedian Lenny Bruce.
“I’m paranoid about everything in my life. Even at home. On my stationary bike I have a rear-view mirror,” he once joked on stage. To Jimmy Kimmel, he said: “This morning I tried to go to bed. I could not sleep. I counted the sheep, but I only had six and they had all had hip surgery.”