NEW YORK — Richard Simmons, television’s hyperactive court jester of physical fitness who built a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and short shorts by urging the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday. He turned 76 on Friday.
Los Angeles police and fire departments say they responded to a Los Angeles home where a man was declared dead of natural causes. Neither provided a name, but The Associated Press matched the address and age to Simmons through public records.
TMZ was first to report his death, which has also been reported by other outlets citing unnamed Simmons representatives.
Simmons, who had revealed a skin cancer diagnosis in March 2024, had lately dropped out of sight, sparking speculation about his health and well-being.
Simmons, a former 268-pound teen, shared his hard-won weight-loss tips as host of the Emmy-winning daytime “Richard Simmons Show,” authored best-selling books and the diet plan Deal-A-Meal, opened exercise studios and starred in many exercise videos, including the successful “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” line.
“My food plan and diet are just two words — common sense. With a dash of good humor,” he told The Associated Press in 1982. “I want to help people and make the world a healthier, happy place.”
Simmons embraced mass communication to get his message out, even as he eventually became the butt of jokes for his outfits and flamboyant flair. He was a guest on TV shows led by Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas and Phil Donahue. But David Letterman would prank him, and Howard Stern would tease him until he cried. He was mocked in Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl” on Broadway in 1993, and Eddie Murphy put on white makeup and dressed like him in “The Nutty Professor,” screaming “I’m a pony!”
Asked if he thought he could motivate people by being silly, Simmons answered, “I think there’s a time to be serious and a time to be silly. It’s knowing when to do it. I try to have a nice combination. Being silly cures depression. It catches people off-guard and makes them think. But in between that silliness is a lot of seriousness that makes sense. It’s a different kind of training.”
Simmons’ daytime show was seen on 200 stations in America, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Japan and South America. His first book, “Never Say Diet,” was a best-seller.
He was known to counsel the severely obese, including Rosalie Bradford, who held records for being the world’s heaviest woman, and Michael Hebranko, who credited Simmons for helping him lose 700 pounds. Simmons put real people — chubby, balding or nontelegenic — in his exercise videos to make the fitness goals seem reachable.
Simmons was a native of New Orleans, a chubby boy named Milton by his parents. (He renamed himself “Richard” around the age of 10 to improve his self-image.) He would tell people he ate to excess because he believed his parents liked his older brother more. He was teased by schoolmates and ballooned to more than 200 pounds.
Simmons told the AP that his mother watched exercise guru Jack LaLanne’s TV show religiously when he was growing up, but he wasn’t crazy about the fitness fanatic. “I hated him,” Simmons said. “I wasn’t ready for his message because he was fit and he was healthy and he had such a positive attitude, and I was none of those things.”
Simmons went to Italy as a foreign exchange student and ended up doing peanut butter commercials and bacchanalian eating scenes for director Federico Fellini in his film “Fellini Satyricon.” He told the AP: “I was fat, had curly hair. The Italians thought I was hysterical. I was the life of the party.”
His life changed after getting an anonymous letter. “One dark, rainy day I went to my car and found a note. It said, ‘Dear Richard, you’re very funny, but fat people die young. Please don’t die.” He was so stunned that he went on the starvation diet that left him thin but very ill.
After the crash diet he gained back 65 pounds. Eventually, he was able to devise a sensible plan to take off the pounds and keep them off. “I went into the business because I couldn’t find anything I liked,” he said.
When Simmons hadn’t been seen in public for several years, some news outlets speculated that he was being held hostage in his own house. In telephone interviews with “Entertainment Tonight” and the “Today” show, Simmons refuted the claims and told his fans he was enjoying the time by himself. Filmmaker-writer Dan Taberski, one of his regular students, launched a podcast in 2017 called “Missing Richard Simmons.”
In 2022, Simmons broke his six-year silence, with his spokesperson telling The New York Post that the beloved fitness icon was “living the life he has chosen.”
Information for this article was contributed by Stefanie Dazio and Andrew Dalton of The Associated Press.
FILE – Richard Simmons arrives at the Project Angel Food’s 2013 Angel Awards in Los Angeles on Aug. 10, 2013. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File, File)
FILE – Richard Simmons leads the crowd at the first ever Women’s Heart Conference in Kearney, Neb., at the University of Nebraska at Kearney Saturday, March 27, 1999. (Rick Tucker/Kearney Hub via AP)
FILE – Richard Simmons, center, is surrounded by models displaying his new line of “Advantage” clothing exclusively for women sized 16-44 as he gives a hoot in Los Angeles for big and beautiful women, Aug. 2, 1984. “You should feel great no matter what size,” says Simmons. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (AP Photo/Mark Avery, File)
FILE – Richard Simmons sits for a portrait in Los Angeles, June 23, 1982. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE – Richard Simmons onstage at JDRF’s Los Angeles Walk to Cure Diabetes at the Rose Bowl on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 in Pasadena, Calif. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision for JDRF/AP, File)
FILE – Richard Simmons at St. Patty’s Day Slimdown benefiting the Lollipop Theatre Network held at Slimmons on Sunday, Mar., 17, 2013 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Lollipop Theatre Network/AP Images, File)
FILE – Richard Simmons at BuzzFeed LA’s Office Grand Opening, on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013 in Los Angeles. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (Photo by Alexandra Wyman/Invision for BuzzFeed/AP Images, File)
FILE – Richard Simmons arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at Barclays Center on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the age of 76. (Photo by John Shearer/Invision for MTV/AP Images, File)