Louie Anderson, comic, Emmy winner for ‘Baskets,’ dies at 68
LOS ANGELES » 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.
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.”