2024-02-29 13:02. A correction has been added to the article.
For a Swedish audience, Richard Lewis is perhaps best known for his participation in HBO’s long-running “Curb your enthusiasm”, which revolves around Seinfeld creator Larry David’s life in Los Angeles.
Lewis and David met for the first time 12 years old at a summer camp and hated each other at first, but after getting to know each other on the New York stand-up scene, they became close friends.
In “Curb”, since the very first episode in 2000, Richard Lewis belonged to the series’ core team where he played a semi-fictional version of himself. In the series, Larry David and Richard Lewis’ friendship is characterized by a hearty bickering over small everyday trifles, about who has their own sandwich at the local lunch spot or who sits facing the wall at the lunch restaurant.
Richard Lewis hade health problems for a long time. In the last season of “Curb,” he only appeared in one episode as he recovered from several surgeries, and last April he announced that he was quitting stand-up after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Despite that, he was able to be involved significantly more in the twelfth and final season of “Curb”, which is currently being broadcast on HBO.
In an interview with Vanity Fair published in mid-February, Richard Lewis said he hoped his illness would not become what defined him.
“I’m a sober alcoholic who happens to have Parkinson’s, but I’m a comedian and actor and writer and screenwriter. So I just own it. Of course I will break down and cry after this interview. But why show you everything?”
When DN interviewed the actor Tracey Ullman, who plays local politician Irma Kostorski, earlier this year, she described Larry David and Richard Lewis’ relationship as one of the highlights.
– Luckily, Richard Lewis was able to be around a bit more this year because I love listening to him and Larry talk to each other. They have known each other since they were children and are hysterically funny together, she said.
– They say the worst things and they have been talking like that since they were 13 years old.
After the obituary, Larry describes David Lewis as a brother.
“Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he has been like a brother to me. He had the unusual combination of being the funniest, but also kindest person. But today he made me cry. And for that I will never forgive him,” he says in A statement.
Also several other profiles from the series, such as Jeff Garlin and Cheryl Hineshas paid tribute to Lewis on social media.
Richard Lewis and Larry David in the tenth season of “Curb” (2020) Photo: John P. Johnson
Almost always dressed in black and with a self-deprecating and dark humor, Brooklyn son Richard Lewis made himself a cult name in the New York stand-up scene during the 1980s and 90s. He appeared in programs such as “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and “Late show with David Letterman” and had several special programs on HBO himself, such as “The I’m exhausted concert” from 1989.
Around the same time, he also got a lead role in the sitcom series “Anything but love” opposite Jamie Lee Curtis. He has also done several roles in films, such as “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” (1993).
Richard Lewis has previously had a serious alcohol and drug addiction that he has since recovered from. He has never hesitated to talk or joke about the subject and has often been the subject of jokes in both his own comedy and on ‘Curb’.
“He was a fantastic actor. Deep and so terribly funny,” writes actor Jamie Lee Curtis in a post on Instagram and adds that he is the reason why she is sober today.
Richard Lewis passed away on Tuesday night after a heart attack, aged 76.
Correction: The movie “Robin Hood: Men in Tricots” came out in 1993.
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