Louie Anderson, 68: Comic, Emmy winner
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 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.”
“You were as gracious and kind as you were funny. Rest well!! Keep ‘em laughing in Heaven,” Viola Davis said on Twitter.
The portly, round-faced Anderson used his girth and a checkered childhood in St. 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 lifelong battle with weight, but said in 1987 that he’d put a stop to using his size as stage material.
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 bestselling books.
He won the best supporting actor Emmy in 2016 for his portrayal of Christine Baskets, mother to twins played by Zach Galifianakis, in FX’s “Baskets.” Anderson, who received three consecutive Emmy nominations for the role, played it with restraint and with specific touches he credits to his mom.