Richard Lewis, one of America’s most beloved and revered stand-up comics who also played a fictionalized version of himself on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, died Tuesday night at his home in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack. He was 76.
His death was confirmed by his publicist Jeff Abraham. Lewis had been living with Parkinson’s disease, a diagnosis he revealed in April 2023.
LIGHTNING ROUND
Robyn Bernard Dies: ‘General Hospital’ Alum Was 64
Michael Culver Dies: ‘Star Wars’ Actor Famed For Darth Vader Force-Choke Scene Was 85
Eric Carmen Dies: The Raspberries’ ‘Go All The Way’ Singer Who Had Solo Hit With ‘All By Myself’ Was 74
Karl Wallinger Dies: World Party & The Waterboys Singer-Songwriter Was 66
M. Emmet Walsh Dies: Prolific Actor In ‘Blade Runner’, ‘Ordinary People’, Coen Brothers Pics & Hundreds More Was 88.
Born on March 22, 1935, in Ogdensburg, NY, Walsh was raised in rural Vermont. He began his screen career guesting on late-1960s TV series before landing bit parts in films including Alice’s Restaurant, Little Big Man and Escape from the Planet of the Apes. He continued to guest-star in episodes of popular 1960s and ’70s series including Bonanza, All in the Family, Ironside, The Bob Newhart Show, McMillan & Wife, The Rockford Files, The Waltons, Starsky and Hutch, James at 16, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and many more.
He also appeared on the big screen in such ’70s hits as Serpico, The Jerk, They Might Be Giants, Straight Time, What’s Up, Doc? and Slap Shot, in which he played sportswriter Dickie Dunn, who was “Just trying to capture the spirit of the thing.”
He continued to work regularly into the 1980s up to the 2020s, appearing in popular pics including the Coen brothers’ 1984 debut Blood Simple, for which won the inaugural Independent Spirit Award, and their sophomore feature Raising Arizona (1987). He also appeared in the Robert Redford prison drama Brubaker (1980), Academy Award winner Ordinary People (1980), Best Picture Oscar nominee Reds (1981), Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic Blade Runner (1982), Chevy Chase comedy Fletch (1985), horror pic Critters (1986) and more.
Louis Gossett Jr. Dies: ‘Roots’, ‘An Officer And A Gentleman’ Actor Was 87
The first Black actor to win a Best Supporting Oscar, Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in Brooklyn. He made his stage debut at 17 in a school production of You Can’t Take It with You and soon would successfully audition for the Broadway production Take a Giant Step, then perform in a star-making supporting role in the hit A Raisin in the Sun (1959). He’d reprise his Raisin role of George Murchison, the college suitor of the play’s rebellious Beneatha, in the 1961 film adaptation directed by Daniel Petrie.
Charting dual careers in music and acting, Gossett was a regular at the folk music clubs of New York City in the ’60s while continuing a busy Broadway and Off Broadway career, notably in the long-running Jean Genet’s The Blacks along with James Earl Jones, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson and others.
Other stage credits from the era include the Broadway play Tambourines to Glory, Golden Boy, The Zulu and the Zayda and My Sweet Charlie, among others.
Gossett’s TV career began in earnest with late-1960s appearances in such series as The Invaders and Daktari, with early-’70s appearances continuing in Bonanza, Longstreet, The Mod Squad and Good Times.
But his major, signature TV role arrived in 1977 when he played the character Fiddler in the much-praised and hugely influential Roots. He won an Emmy for the performance, cementing a TV career that would continue all but uninterrupted through 2019, when he had a regular role on Watchmen. The latter earned Gossett his 7th Emmy nomination.
On the big screen, Gossett had roles in ’70s fare such as The Landlord, Skin Game, The Deep, The Choirboys and Jaws 3-D, but it was his performance as a tough-as-nails Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley opposite Richard Gere’s new recruit Zack Mayo in An Officer and a Gentleman that would stamp his film career as surely as Roots did his TV performances. His performance as the unrelenting drill sergeant won Gossett an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He also won a Golden Globe for the performance.
Subsequent film roles include performances in the The Punisher (1989), Toy Soldiers (1991), A Gathering of Old Men (1987), Curse of the Starving Class (1994) and numerous others — a steady stream, in fact, right up to 2023’s The Color Purple.
His career in episodic TV was equally prolific, with roles in the 1980s (The Guardian, The Powers of Matthew Star and a reprise as Fiddler in Roots: The Gift), the ’90s (Picket Fences, Touched by an Angel, Ellen and Strange Justice), and the 2000s (The Dead Zone, Lackawanna Blues, Family Guy, ER, Boardwalk Empire, The Good Fight), among many others.
During his career, Gossett also racked up two Golden Globes and a third nomination, two NAACP Image Awards on six noms, a Daytime Emmy and two other nominations, a SAG Award nom and four CableACE Awards noms. He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992.
Gossett was married three times, the first (annulled) in 1964 to Hattie Glascoe, then to Christina Mangosing , from 1973-75 and to Cyndi James Gossett from 1987-92.
Chance Perdomo Dies: ‘Gen V’ Star Was 27
Most recently, Perdomo starred in Prime Video’s Gen V in the role of Andre Anderson, a popular student and Luke’s best friend with magnetic manipulation capabilities. He worked alongside Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, Maddie Phillips and London Thor in the superhero series, a spinoff of The Boys. Production on Season 2 will be pushed following the tragedy.
Before his time on Gen V, he played the lead role of Ambrose Spellman in Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina opposite Kiernan Shipka, Ross Lynch and Michelle Gomez, to name a few.
Perdomo was an Afro-Latino actor born in Los Angeles but raised in Southampton, England. After graduating, he wanted to study law but focused on acting instead. His career began when he worked at the National Youth Theater in London.
Joe Flaherty Dies: ‘SCTV’ And ‘Freaks And Geeks’ Actor Was 82
Last month, Flaherty’s former improv group Second City organized a fundraiser to help support the actor during his illness. A message shared by his former SCTV co-star Martin Short, stated “Our beloved SCTV cast member, Joe Flaherty, is very ill. Joe is aware of the gravity of his failing health and would like to spend whatever time he has left at home rather than in a facility. We are writing to our friends because we believe SCTV meant something to you, and that would not be the case if it were not for Joe Flaherty. He was a mentor, a director, and an inspiring improviser who gave us many of the tools we are still using in the careers he helped kickstart.”
Born Joseph O’Flaherty in Pittsburgh on June 21, 1941 – he eventually dropped the “O” because the name was already taken by another Equity member – Flaherty began his comedy career at The Second City in Chicago, and appeared on the National Lampoon Radio Hour from 1973-74. He moved to Toronto to help launch a Second City troupe there, and in 1976 became a founding cast member of the Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV that would feature some of the most influential comedians of the era. In addition to Flaherty, the show starred John Candy, Harold Ramis, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas and Short
LIGHTNING ROUND
Clarence "Frogman" Henry, the New Orleans R&B singer whose 1956 hit “Ain’t Got No Home” showcased a vocal range that could soar to falsetto and plummet to the croak that provided his nickname, died Sunday. He was 87.
C.J. Snare, the lead singer and keyboardist of hard rock band FireHouse, which had two Top 10 singles in the early 1990s, has died at 64. Snare’s daughter said her father died on Friday after a lengthy cancer battle.
Adrian Schiller, who played Aethelhelm in the Netflix historical series The Last Kingdom, died Wedneday at 60-years-old. No details on location or cause has been revealed.
Cole Brings Plenty, an actor who appeared in Paramount+'s 1923, has died at the age of 27. Brings Plenty was the nephew of Yellowstone star Mo Brings Plenty.