Biography

Richard Lewis

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Richard Philip Lewis was born on June 29, 1947 in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Englewood, New Jersey. He went to Dwight Morrow High School and Ohio State University, graduating in 1969 with a degree in marketing and communications. Lewis wrote ad copy in New Jersey while also writing jokes for comedians such as Morty Gunty. He finally got the nerve to perform his own jokes in 1971 at New York's Improvisation and Pips.

After appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) in 1974, he continued to tour and hone his act with help from David Brenner and Robert Klein. His film Diary of a Young Comic (1979) aired in the Saturday Night Live (1975) time-slot. His work on cable "I'm in Pain" for Showtime in 1988, The I'm Exhausted Concert (1988) earned a nomination from American Comedy Awards for Funniest Male Performer in a Television Special (for HBO); Richard Lewis: I'm Doomed (1990) (HBO) won him a second Ace Nomination for Best Stand-Up Comedy Special. His Richard Lewis: The Magical Misery Tour (1996) was filmed at New York's "Bottom Line" in December 1996. In December 1989, he performed to an SRO crowd at Carnegie Hall.
- IMDb mini biography by: Janet Hoffmann/Robert Sieger

Has known Larry David (who was born 3 days after him) since they met at a summer camp when they were both 13.
He appeared on Candid Camera (1960) when he was approximately 17. A bogus guidance counselor advised him he was best-suited for work as a laborer and/or shepherd. (This was re-aired on Candid Camera (1998) in 2000 and he appeared advising Burbank, California, students that they were best-suited for some unusual jobs, including stand-up comedian).
Has petitioned Bartlett's Familiar Quotations to attribute the phrase "the (blank) from Hell", i.e. "the date from Hell", "the roommate from Hell", etc., to him. They have rejected his claims, stating that the phrase was in use as early as World War I when kilted Scottish soldiers were given the nickname "The Ladies from Hell". However, the Yale Book of Quotations does attribute the phrase to Lewis. This inspired a story line in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode The Nanny from Hell (2002).
Had a very close relationship with his comedy idol Jonathan Winters in the last ten years or so of Winters's life.
First appearance on television: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) in March 1974.

On wife Joyce Lapinsky: I keep thinking the rug is going to be pulled out from under me. I still think this is a practical joke and she has a million affairs and is married to someone in Italy. She keeps saying no, but I haven't seen her in a few days.
I'll speak for me, though it's hard for me to speak for myself because I don't know who I am.
[re Jonathan Winters ] I talked to Jonathan almost daily on the phone when he was feeling well. In the past eight or nine years he must have left me hundreds and hundreds of insanely funny messages in my voicemail, each a different character and all gold. If I failed to mention the premise of his call I was always touched when he asked me if I dug the bit. Imagine!? My childhood idol was asking me! We had a father-son comedy relationship. Both being recovering alcoholics we related on that level, Jonathan with a staggering fifty-three years sober before passing, and growing up we had a horrible time of it getting support from most of our family, diving into show business but mostly we free-associated in life and on stage and 'got' the most obscure references from one another. He had special relationships with a handful of buddies that I know he treasured. We were his standing ovation every time we saw him or talked to him. Every day.

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