Comedian and actor Richard Lewis passed away on Feb 27th, 2024, at 76 years of age.

His life was marked by a series of struggles that shaped how he performed his comedy – substance use and alcohol, hospitalizations, his continuous battle against depression and anxiety, and most recently, Parkinson’s Disease.

“The Prince of Pain,” as he called himself, was an open book about his life.

Lewis described himself as a neurotic who suffered from hypochondria and paranoia. After living with substance use disorder and self-medicating with alcohol for years, Lewis was able to find sobriety. The struggle of not being able to “self-medicate” to manage his mind became a talking point of his stand-up shows, his interviews, and even his roles. His struggles led to mass appeal as a comedian.

In the words of Matt Zoller Seitz for RogerEbert.com:

“He might have been the coolest comic that ever lived whose stage persona was based entirely on confessing what a disaster he was.”

Richard took his struggles and transformed them into positive traits of his personality. For him, his anxiety was a “blessing and a curse.” A curse because it contributed to his alcoholism, and a blessing because, as he said, “it made me funnier.”

According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting over 40 million adults. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is the most common with 6.8 million affected in 2023 (https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/anxiety-statistics/).

His openness about his experiences with anxiety, depression, and substance use became an inspiration for others. He, himself, became representative of hope and a role model for others living with mental health concerns. He allowed himself to be fragile and even self-deprecating; someone who didn’t take himself so seriously as to allow his condition to prevent him from thriving.

Lewis showed others that you don’t need to have everything figured out to achieve your goals and live a successful life.

When he was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease toward the end of his life, he also used that experience to inspire others. He found ways to connect with his fans, even though he couldn’t “go out as much,” by creating a video podcast “for his own mental health.”

Richard Lewis showed the world that he was more than his mental illness. He transformed this pain, and used it to become the best at his craft. He created true art; that which represents life.

 “Richard Lewis: Alive and Unwell” was his last project, one that recorded even his last hours on this earth. This podcast gave us the testimony of the “King of Pain” — a man who could take life’s obstacles and covert them into a unique inspiration for so many.