Home United States USA — Art Louie Anderson, comic, Emmy winner for ‘Baskets,’ dies at 68

Louie Anderson, comic, Emmy winner for ‘Baskets,’ dies at 68

145
0
SHARE

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louie Anderson, whose four-decade career as a comedian and actor included his unlikely, Emmy-winning performance as mom to twin adult sons in…
WTOP spoke with Louie Anderson last summer on the “Beyond the Fame” podcast. LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louie Anderson, whose four-decade career as a comedian and actor included his unlikely, Emmy-winning performance as mom to twin adult sons in the TV series “Baskets,” died Friday. He was 68. Anderson died at a hospital in Las Vegas of complications from cancer, said Glenn Schwartz, his longtime publicist. Anderson had a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Schwartz said previously. “’Baskets’ was such a phenomenal ‘second act’ for Louie Anderson. I wish he’d gotten a third,” Michael McKean said on Twitter. George Wallace wrote: “You’ll be missed, Louie. What an awesome friend. One in a million.” Gilbert Gottfried posted a photo of himself, Anderson and Bob Saget, who died Jan.9, with the caption: “Both good friends that will be missed.” The portly, round-faced Anderson used his girth and a checkered childhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota, as fodder for his early stand-up routines. In a 1987 interview with The Associated Press, Anderson compared himself to another comedian who mined his childhood for comedy. “Bill Cosby and I had similar goals,” Anderson told AP. “I wanted parents to be able to bring their children and children to be able to bring their parents to my concerts. I feel a family that can laugh about family problems is better off. The difference between Cosby and myself is that he sees it from an adult perspective and I tell it from a child’s viewpoint.” He had a life-long battle with weight, but said in 1987 that he’d put a stop to using his size as stage material. “I’ve always been big,” he said. “But I don’t do fat jokes anymore.” In later years, his life as one of 11 children in a family headed by a troubled father and devoted mother was a deeper source of reflection and inspiration for Anderson, both in his screen work and in his best-selling books.

Continue reading...