Performers George Jessel, Dom DeLuise, Nina van Pallandt and Gary Mule Deer make appearances in the film as themselves. The film features Bill Macy as Billy's father, Michael Lerner as his agent, and Stacy Keach as a landlord. The film's script was co-written by Lewis and Bennett Tramer and was adapted from a story written by Gary Weis, who also served as the film's director. A satirical look at the Hollywood scene, Lewis stars in the film as Billy Gondola (born Gondolstein), a young Jewish comedian who leaves New York City to find fame in Los Angeles. Lewis made his screen acting debut in Diary of a Young Comic, a 90 minute film that aired on NBC in 1979 in the timeslot normally reserved for episodes of Saturday Night Live. In his early days he was also known for bringing taped-together sheets from a legal pad to his performances, that he would lay across the floor in front of him to remind him of joke premises and topics he wished to cover during his performance. He is noted for wearing all-black attire and for pacing and gesticulating wildly during his stand-up act. Lewis is known for dark comedy, self-deprecation and for frank discussions of his many neuroses as well as his struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction. His influences are Buster Keaton, Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor. By the mid-1970s, Lewis had appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and publications such as the New York Daily News and New York Magazine were naming him one of the "new breed" or "class" of comedians, along with such names as Robert Klein, Lily Tomlin, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Andy Kaufman, Richard Belzer and Elayne Boosler. Brenner helped Lewis's career by introducing him to the comedy clubs in Los Angeles and getting Lewis his first appearance on The Tonight Show. He was discovered by comedian David Brenner, while performing in Greenwich Village. He began writing and regularly performing stand-up comedy in 1972, while working as a copywriter for an advertising agency by day. Lewis first tried stand-up at an open-mic in Greenwich Village in 1971. Career Richard Lewis in Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2024 He graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in 1965 and attended The Ohio State University where he attained a degree in marketing. Lewis was known for being the class clown and causing trouble in school. Lewis told The Washington Post in 2014 that he suspected that his birth had been a mistake. Lewis's father's catering business kept his father very busy, and his siblings had both left home by the 1960s, leaving Lewis at home alone with his mother, with whom he did not get along. Lewis is the youngest of three siblings – his brother was older than him by 6 years, and his sister by 9. 1971), was co-owner of Ambassador Caterers in nearby Teaneck, New Jersey, and his mother, Blanche, was an actress in community theatre. His family is Jewish, but not especially religious. Lewis was born in Brooklyn and was raised in Englewood, New Jersey. He came to prominence in the 1980s and became known for his dark, neurotic and self-deprecating humor.Īs an actor he is known for co-starring with Jamie Lee Curtis in the sitcom Anything but Love, for playing the role of Prince John in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights and for his recurring role as a semi-fictionalized version of himself in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Richard Philip Lewis (born June 29, 1947) is an American actor, writer, and retired stand-up comedian.
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