Jamie Lee Curtis poured her heart out while reminiscing about her dear friend and former Anything But Love co-star Richard Lewis following his death.
“I’ve just read that my friend Richard Lewis has died,” Curtis, 65, shared via Instagram on Wednesday, February 28, alongside snaps from their ABC sitcom. “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.”
The actress recalled how much she admired Lewis for his work.
“I thought he was handsome,” she confessed while she walked down memory lane. “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.”
Hollywood mourned many celebrities in 2024. Speed Racer star Christian Oliver (born Christian Klepser) died at the age of 51 during a fatal plane crash on January 5. Oliver was traveling home from a Caribbean vacation with his two daughters — Madita and Annik, whom he shared with wife Jessica Klepser — on January 4. […]
Curtis opened up about how Anything But Love’s storyline ended up becoming what it was, writing, “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.”
Anything But Love first premiered in 1989 and went on to run for four seasons before it ended in 1992. The show followed best friends and co-workers Marty Gold (Lewis) and Hannah Miller (Curtis) as they tried to navigate their undeniable feelings for one another without ruining their friendship in the process.
Curtis’ emotional post also detailed some of her favorite memories of Lewis from set, writing, “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.”
The Everything Everywhere All at Once star also revealed that if it wasn’t for Lewis, she wouldn’t be sober. “He helped me,” she continued. “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!”
Lewis died on Monday, February 27, after suffering a heart attack at age 76. The news came less than a year after the actor revealed he had been battling Parkinson’s disease. Lewis is survived by his wife, Joyce Lapinsky, whom he married in 2005.