Richard Simmons, tv’s hyperactive court docket jester of bodily health who constructed a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and quick shorts by urging the obese to train and eat higher, died Saturday. He was 76.
Los Angeles police and fireplace departments say they responded to a Los Angeles home the place a person was declared useless from pure causes. Neither offered a reputation, however The Associated Press matched the tackle and age to Simmons by way of public information.
TMZ was the primary to report his loss of life. It has additionally been reported by different retailers citing unnamed Simmons representatives.
Simmons, who revealed a pores and skin most cancers prognosis in March 2024, had currently dropped out of sight, sparking hypothesis about his well being and well-being.
Simmons was a former 268-pound teen who shared his hard-won weight-loss ideas as host of the Emmy-winning daytime “Richard Simmons Show,” writer of best-selling books and the food plan plan Deal-A-Meal, in addition to opening train studios and starring in thousands and thousands of train movies, together with the profitable “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” line.
“My food plan and diet are just two words — common sense. With a dash of good humour,” he instructed The Associated Press in 1982. “I want to help people and make the world a healthier, happy place.”
Simmons embraced mass communication to get his message out, at the same time as he finally turned the butt of jokes for his outfits and flamboyant aptitude. He was a visitor on TV exhibits led by Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas and Phil Donahue. But David Letterman would prank him and Howard Stern would tease him till he cried. He was mocked in Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” on Broadway in 1993, and Eddie Murphy placed on white make-up and dressed like him in “The Nutty Professor,” screaming “I’m a pony!”
Asked if he thought he may inspire folks by fooling around, Simmons answered, “I think there’s a time to be serious and a time to be silly. It’s knowing when to do it. I try to have a nice combination. Being silly cures depression. It catches people off guard and makes them think. But in between that silliness is a lot of seriousness that makes sense. It’s a different kind of training.”
Simmons’ daytime present was seen on 200 stations in America, in addition to Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and South America. His first guide, “Never Say Diet” was a smash bestseller.
He was identified to counsel the severely overweight, together with Rosalie Bradford, who held information for being the world’s heaviest lady, and Michael Hebranko, who credited Simmons for serving to him lose 700 kilos. Simmons put actual folks — chubby, balding or non-telegenic — in his train movies to make the health objectives appear reachable.
Throughout his profession, Simmons was a dependable critic of fad diets, all the time emphasizing wholesome consuming and train plans. “There’ll always be some weird thing about eating four grapes before you go to bed, or drinking a special tea, or buying this little bean from El Salvador,” he instructed the AP in 2005 because the Atkins food plan craze swept the nation. “If you watch your portions and you have a good attitude and you work out every day you’ll live longer, feel better and look terrific.”
Simmons was a local of New Orleans, a chubby boy named Milton by his dad and mom. (He renamed himself “Richard” across the age of 10 to enhance his self-image). He would inform folks he ate to extra as a result of he believed his dad and mom favored his older brother extra. He was teased by schoolmates and ballooned to virtually 200 kilos.
Simmons instructed the AP his mom watched train guru Jack LaLanne’s TV present religiously when he was rising up, however he wasn’t loopy concerning the health fanatic. “I hated him,” Simmons stated. “I wasn’t ready for his message because he was fit and he was healthy and he had such a positive attitude, and I was none of those things.”
Simmons went to Italy as a international trade pupil and ended up doing peanut butter commercials and bacchanalian consuming scenes for director Federico Fellini in his movie “Fellini Satyricon.” He instructed the AP: “I was fat, had curly hair. The Italians thought I was hysterical. I was the life of the party.”
His life modified after getting an nameless letter. “One dark, rainy day I went to my car and found a note. It said, ‘Dear Richard, you’re very funny, but fat people die young. Please don’t die.” He was so surprised that he went on the hunger food plan that left him skinny however very in poor health.
After the crash food plan he gained again 65 kilos. Eventually, he was in a position to devise a wise plan to take off the kilos and hold them off. “I went into the business because I couldn’t find anything I liked,” he stated.
When Simmons hadn’t been seen in public for a number of years, some information retailers speculated that he was being held hostage in his personal home. In phone interviews with “Entertainment Tonight” and the “Today” present, Simmons refuted the claims and instructed his followers he was having fun with the time by himself. Filmmaker-writer Dan Taberski, one in every of his common college students, launched a podcast in 2017 referred to as “Missing Richard Simmons.”
In 2022, Simmons broke his six-year silence, along with his spokesperson telling The New York Post that the beloved health icon was “living the life he has chosen.”
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