‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ host dies at age 76
LAS VEGAS — Robin Leach, whose voice crystallized the opulent 1980s on TV’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” died Friday. He was 76.
Leach’s family said through a public relations firm that he died in Las Vegas, where he made his home.
Leach had a stroke in November while on vacation in Mexico that led to a monthslong recovery, much of which he spent at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio before returning to Las Vegas in June.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which ran Leach’s columns before he became ill, said he suffered another stroke Monday.
“Champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was Leach’s sign-off at the end of every episode of his syndicated show’s decade-long run that began in 1984.
Celebrities and others took to social media to express condolences and share stories about their interactions with Leach.
“Saddened to hear the news that Robin Leach has passed away,” Celine Dion tweeted. “He was a thoughtful and considerate man, and a great supporter of the entertainment scene in Las Vegas.”
Magician Criss Angel tweeted that he met “Uncle Robin,” as he affectionately referred to Leach, in 2004 and became fast friends.
“There will never be another,” he wrote.
In a statement, casino operator MGM Resorts International said Las Vegas had “lost one of its biggest cheerleaders.”
Leach covered the excesses and sometimes gaudy style of the 1980s, a time before oil billionaires, titans of industry and Wall Street traders gave way to sneaker-wearing tech execs as the world’s richest people.
Leach appeared occasionally on the show, but he and his unmistakable English accent narrated throughout, taking wishful viewers on tours of mansions with diamond-crusted chandeliers, yachts with Jacuzzis, and champagne that ran to four figures. It was much like rap videos would do in future decades.
Leach and producer Al Masini coined the catchphrase and conceived the show.
“He asked me if I could get magnates T. Boone Pickens or Sam Walton to do the show,” Leach told The Huffington Post in 2016. “In my naivete, I said, ‘Of course.’ And thus, ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.’”
Leach said in later years that someone still shouted “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” at him almost daily. He was constantly parodied, and like other distinctive voices of the age such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Howard Cosell, everyone had a Leach impression.