Richard Philip Lewis was born on 29 June 1947, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, of Jewish ancestry. Richard is a comedian and actor, probably still best known for his stand-up routines and comedy specials that made him famous during the 70s and 80s. The popularity he’s gained from comedy helped him obtain opportunities for film and television, which in turn helped raise his net worth to where it is today.
How rich is Richard Lewis? As of early-2016, sources inform of a net worth that is at $7 million, mostly accumulated through a successful career in comedy. Even after the peak of his popularity, he has continued to make guest appearances in various television shows, and he’s also released a book, which helped increase and maintain his current wealth.
Richard Lewis Net Worth $7 Million
Richard enrolled at Ohio State University, but then started his career in comedy during the early 1970s, when he worked on his stand-up act during the night while working in an ad agency during the day. Eventually the company he was working for became defunct, but his skill in comedy soon earned him great popularity, including in the 1980s making several appearances on “Late Night with David Letterman”. His popularity also earned him a few comedy specials on HBO. Later, he was given an opportunity to star in an ABC sitcom entitled “Anything but Love”, in which he worked with Jamie Lee Curtis. The series lasted for four seasons, and then he was given the chance to star or guest in other television shows like “Daddy Dearest”, “Rude Awakening”, “7th Heaven” and “Tales from the Crypt”. The fame also saw him writing comic articles for various publications like Playboy. A few years later, he appeared as Charlie Sheen’s accountant in “Two and a Half Men”, and also guested in Chris Rock’s Show “Everybody Hates Chris”. All these appearances helped increase his net worth.
Lewis also had a few endorsement offers, some of which he has taken. These include the 1990s beverage Boku, Certs, and Snapple. He also found opportunities to work in films, including “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”, “The Wrong Guys”, “Once Upon a Crime”, and “Wagons East!” Like many comic personalities, he also gave drama a try with various movies like “Drunks”, “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Hugo Pool”, which added somewhat to his net worth.
While he continued to make several appearances on television, the most notable appearance he made during the 2000s was on “The Howard Stern Show”. He had written a book which he was promoting and it was entitled “The Other Great Depressions”, which details the actor’s struggle with alcoholism and how he has conquered it, and how he has been sober since 1994. He also made significant waves with his reunion with Larry David in the popular HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. According to Lewis, he was the originator of the phrase “The_From Hell” which was used to describe a variety of things. While some books do credit him for the phrase, many others state that the phrase was used way before he had ever used it for any of his comic acts.
Aside from his endeavors on the stage and in front of the camera, Richard married Joyce Lapinsky in 2005, but little else is known outside of his work and even his problems on alcoholism weren’t revealed until his book. Lewis is always known to sport an all-black look with Converse sneakers.
The Great Welsh Tenor, Berlioz: Requiem - Grande Messe des Morts
Nominations
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Movies
Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Once Upon a Crime, Leaving Las Vegas, Wagons East!, Vamps, Drunks, The Wrong Guys, Hugo Pool, Confessions of an Action Star, The Danger of Love: The Carolyn Warmus Story, That's Adequate, Lewis on Film: The Oscar Edition, The Elevator
TV Shows
Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Cleaner, Rude Awakening, Hercules, Anything but Love, CBS Summer Playhouse, Riptide, House Calls, Hiller and Diller, TriBeCa, A.J.'s Time Travelers, All Star Toast to the Improv, Daddy Dearest, Harry
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Trademark
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Always wears black
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The line "the nk] from Hell"
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Neurotic humour
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Quote
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[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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I'll speak for me, though it's hard for me to speak for myself because I don't know who I am.
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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.
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Fact
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On his The Other Great Depression Tour [February 2001]
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Had a very close relationship with his comedy idol Jonathan Winters in the last ten years or so of Winters' life.
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Has petitioned Bartlett's Familiar Quotations to attribute the phrase "the nk] 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 storyline in the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Nanny from Hell (2002).
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).