Larry David leads tributes to Richard Lewis: ‘Today he made me sob’

Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael McKean and Albert Brooks also paid tribute to the late comedian

Larry David has led tributes to his Curb Your Enthusiasm co-star Richard Lewis, who has died aged 76.

The acclaimed and beloved stand-up comedian suffered a heart attack at home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night (27 February).

In a statement shared by HBO, David wrote: “Richard and I were born three days apart in the same hospital and for most of my life he’s been like a brother to me.

“He had that rare combination of being the funniest person and also the sweetest. But today he made me sob and for that I’ll never forgive him.”

Jamie Lee Curtis, who starred alongside Lewis in the sitcom Anything But Love (1989-1992), also paid tribute to the late actor with a heartfelt post on Instagram.

“I’ve just read that my friend Richard Lewis has died,” wrote Curtis. “I remember exactly where I was when I saw a billboard of him about a stand up special on Sunset Boulevard when we were casting the ABC pilot Anything But Love and asked the casting people to bring him in to audition to play my best friend/maybe boyfriend, Marty Gold.

Richard Lewis with Larry David in 2013 (Getty Images for AFI)

“I thought he was handsome. He made me laugh, which is the one thing that a strong, capable woman, can’t really do for herself. He got the part when I snort laughed when he mispronounced the word Bundt cake. He blew everyone else away. It was a love triangle show and they didn’t pick up that pilot but they came back to me and said that the chemistry with Richard was so great and could we revamp the original pilot which is the show we ended up making for a couple years.

“He was also a stand-up comic and hated the live audience, where I, who had never done a play, loved it. He used to hide his lines everywhere on the set, on props, door frames, on my face in a close up and was always carrying a clipboard with his lines on them. It turns out he was a wonderful actor. Deep and so freaking funny.”

Curtis added that Lewis, who was sober for several decades, helped her find sobriety herself. “He also is the reason I am sober,” she wrote. “He helped me. I am forever grateful for him for that act of grace alone. He found love with Joyce and that, of course, besides his sobriety, is what mattered most to him. I’m weeping as I write this. Strange way of saying thank you to a sweet and funny man. Rest in laughter, Richard. My Marty, I love you, Hannah!”

On X/Twitter, This Is Spinal Tap star Michael McKean wrote: “Farewell, Richard Lewis. Procol Harum has lost another fan, and the rest of us have lost a very good man.”

And Albert Brooks added: “RIP Richard Lewis. A brilliantly funny man who will missed by all. The world needed him now more than ever.”