Garry Shandling

Comedian and actor Born: November 29, 1949; Died: March 24, 2016

GARRY Shandling, who has died aged 66, made his name as a frequent guest host on late-night television and by parodying himself as star of the pioneering cable TV comedy series, The Larry Sanders Show.

He helped make techniques such as breaking the fourth wall to talk directly to the viewer, and inviting celebrities to take on self-parodying cameos, mainstream, influencing many comedians who followed him, not least Ricky Gervais.

Sanders began his showbiz career as a writer for TV sitcoms such as Welcome Back, Kotter and Sanford and Son.

Although he was a frequent, longtime fixture on the broadcast television talkshow circuit, Shandling made his biggest splash on cable television in its early days.

He created and starred on the Showtime network’s It’s Garry Shandling’s Show in the mid-1980s, a programme that defied convention by calling attention to the conceit of the show itself, going so far as to integrate the studio audience and the set into the action.

Its theme song was also ground-breaking – a folksy, catchy tune about the task of writing a theme song for the Garry Shandling Show. It ran for 72 episodes.

But Shandling went on to greater commercial and critical acclaim with another show-within-a-show series, The Larry Sanders Show, which ran from 1992 to 1998 on HBO.

It starred Shandling as a satirically exaggerated version of himself hosting a fictional late-night TV talk show, drawing on his real-life experiences as a stand-up comic and regular guest host for NBC’s The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

Shandling won an Emmy in 1998 for his writing on the series finale.

Co-starring Jeffrey Tambor and Rip Torn, Larry Sanders was one of HBO’s first big successes and is seen as a forerunner for parody-heavy comedy hits that came after it, including Entourage, 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

“Garry redesigned the wheel of comedy and he was the kindest and funniest of geniuses,” said Transparent star Tambor.

HBO said in a statement that Shandling’s show “ushered in the modern period of original programming” at the pay-cable network.

A Chicago native, Shandling grew up in a Jewish family in Tucson, Arizona, before moving in the 1970s to Los Angeles, where he first worked in advertising, and studied electrical engineering and marketing before breaking into TV sitcoms, selling a script for Sanford and Son and writing for Welcome Back, Kotter. He developed his own stand-up comedy act, and featured on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, initially as a guest then subsequently as a stand-in host when Carson was unavailable.

Apart from his sitcoms, he appeared in a number of films as an actor or voice actor, including Iron Man 2, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Over the Hedge and Zoolander.

He co-starred in big-budget disaster Town and Country with Diane Keaton and Warren Beattie in 2001, which is known as being one of the biggest box office flops in Hollywood history.

However he was a popular awards host, with three appearances hosting the Grammys and two as Emmys host.

Shandling, who appears to have suffered a heart attack, was unmarried and had no children.