Comedians Who Died In 2022
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Brandon "Boogie B" Montrell
Social media personality and comedian Brandon "Boogie B" Montrell was shot and killed in New Orleans on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2022. He was 43.
Montrell, known for his series "New Orleans Hood History," in which he casually explained parts of New Orleans' popular culture, had almost 100,000 followers on his Instagram account. The comedian lived in Los Angeles but was back home in New Orleans visiting his family for the holidays.
Most recently, Montrell told the story on his Instagram account of New Orleans' 7th Ward Santa, Fred Parker, who died in 2020. The video was posted just hours before Montrell was shot and killed outside of a Rouse's Supermarket in New Orleans' Central Business District.
Source: NOLA.com
- Age: Dec. at 43
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
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Kirstie Alley passed away on December 5, 2022 due to colon cancer. She was 71.
Alley was an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning beloved comedy actress whose breakout role as Rebecca Howe on the popular ‘80s sitcom Cheers catapulted her to stardom. She stepped in to replace actress Shelley Long at the height of the show’s popularity, and was a part of the ensemble until the end of the show's run. In addition to Cheers, Alley also starred in the critically-acclaimed tv series David's Mother, as well as NBC sitcom Veronica's Closet. She made the jump to the big screen with her role as a half-Vulcan in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Her other film credits include It Takes Two, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and Look Who's Talking with John Travolta, after which they were thick as thieves.
In tribute of his late best friend, Travolta posted sweet photos of Alley on his Instagram with the caption reading: “Kirstie was one of the most special relationships I’ve ever had. I love you Kirstie. I know we will see each other again.”
- Age: Dec. at 71 (1951-2022)
- Birthplace: Wichita, Kansas, USA
- 1Look Who's Talking101 Votes
- 2For Richer or Poorer98 Votes
- 3Look Who's Talking Too69 Votes
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- Gallagher
Comedian, Gallagher, an inventive prop comedian known for smashing watermelons, has passed at the age of 76 on November 11, 2022.
Gallagher got his big break on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show in 1972 where he showed off his signature bit the “Sledge-o-matic,” which quickly cemented him as one of the most popular comedians in America. He stayed on the road, touring and performing for audiences everywhere for decades.
He has 17 comedy specials spanning decades of his work including 1980's “A Very Censored Evening,” his first comedy special. Several of his specials were on HBO and 13 of them were for Showtime.
- Age: Dec. at 76 (1946-2022)
- Birthplace: Fort Bragg, North Carolina
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Comedian and actor Leslie Jordan, known for his roles in “Will and Grace” and “American Horror Story,” passed away on October 24, 2022, after a car crash in Hollywood.
Jordan was behind the wheel of a BMW when he crashed into the side of a building at Cahuenga Boulevard and Romaine Street. The longtime actor and writer was declared dead at the scene.
After getting his big break in 1989 when he was cast in the first season of “Murphy Brown,” Jordan’s 30-year career was marked by scene-stealing roles in television shows such as “Bodies of Evidence” and “Hearts of Afire.” His fame grew while starring in NBC’s “Will and Grace,” as well as stints on Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” franchise and “The Cool Kids,” in which he played queer, confident senior citizen Sid Delacroix.
Jordan, 67, won a prime-time Emmy in 2006 for his performance as Beverly Leslie in the TV show “Will and Grace.”
More recently, while holed up in an apartment of his native Chattanooga, Tenn., Leslie found online viral fame with a constant string of Instagram videos, where he would comedically quip about day-to-day life in quarantine, marked by his lively, Southern accent.
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Variety- Age: Dec. at 67 (1955-2022)
- Birthplace: Chattanooga, Tennessee
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- David A. Arnold
Comedian David A. Arnold passed away on September 8, 2022. He was 54.
Arnold was a producer of the “Fuller House” reboot and the creator and showrunner of Nickelodeon’s “That Girl Lay Lay." He also wrote television episodes for “Meet the Browns,” “The Ricky Smiley Show” and “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.”
Arnold gained appeal through his perspective about fatherhood. He headlined two Netflix comedy specials: “Fat Ballerina” in 2019 and the Kevin Hart-produced “It Ain’t for the Weak,” which only just debuted in July 2022.
Arnold was also featured in the Netflix is a Joke comedy festival in late April. Most recently, he was three shows into his four-month comedy tour called “Pace Ya Self.”
- Age: 1968 - 2022
- Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
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- Teddy Ray
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Teddy Ray
Teddy Ray, a comedian and actor who appeared on the HBO Max series "PAUSE with Sam Jay," passed away on August 12, 2022 due to an apparent drowning. He was 32.
"Teddy Ray was a hilarious and beloved performer," said TV network Comedy Central in a Twitter statement Friday. "He'll be deeply missed by the entire comedy community."
Ray appeared as the bailiff on "PAUSE with Sam Jay," appeared in the digital series "Cancel Court," and was a stand-up comedian.
- Age: 1990-2022
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Jak Knight
Jak Knight, a stand-up comedian, actor and writer who recently co-created the Peacock series Bust Down, passed away on July 15, 2022. He was 28.
Knight died Thursday night in Los Angeles, his family announced through an agency rep. Additional details, including cause of death, are not being released at this time. “Knight’s loved ones ask that their privacy please be respected during this extremely difficult time,” the rep said.
Knight’s career was not only in a good place, but his star was on the rise. After writing for a string of hit shows — from Netflix’s critically acclaimed raunchy comedy Big Mouth to ABC’s beloved Black-ish — Knight segued to co-creating, executive producing and starring in the new Peacock series Bust Down.
- Age: 1993 - 2022
- Birthplace: Seattle, Washington, USA
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- Nick Nemeroff
Nick Nemeroff
Comedian Nick Nemeroff passed away on June 27, 2022. He was 32. Nemeroff's passing was announced on his social media profiles.
Nemeroff grew up in Montreal-West and graduated from Ryerson University in Toronto. He went on to pursue a career in standup, showing off his comedic talents on shows like Conan and The Stand-Up Show with Jon Dore.
Nemeroff also released a performance album called This Pursuit of Comedy Has Ruined My Life that was nominated for a Juno Award last year.
Ahead of the record's release, Nemeroff said hoped fans would "laugh a lot and get my jokes stuck in their heads the same way I did when I listened to old Mitch Hedberg albums."
- Age: 1990-2022
- Birthplace: Montreal, Canada
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Gilbert Gottfried passed away on April 12, 2022, after a lengthy illness, his family announced via a statement shared to the late actor's Twitter page. He was 67.
“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness. In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend, and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor. Love, the Gottfried family," the statement read.
Gottfried began his stand-up comedy career at age 15, and first gained national attention when he joined the 1980 season of Saturday Night Live. He went on to star alongside SNL's Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop II. He famously voiced the parrot Iago in Disney's Aladdin, as well as the voice of the Aflac duck in the insurance commercials. In 1989, Gottfried became the original host of USA Network’s Up All Night, and continued with that role until 1998.
Other TV credits for Gottfried include The Fairly OddParents, Ren and Stimpy, Becker, Hollywood Squares, many celebrites roasts, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Other film credits include Problem Child, Problem Child 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and Jack in the Beanstalk. He was known for his unique voice and comic delivery, and popularized the vulgar joke from 2005 documentary, The Aristocrats.
His podcast, Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, was one of the most popular on medium.
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- Age: Dec. at 67 (1955-2022)
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
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Actress Estelle Harris passed away on April 2, 2022, of natural causes, her son, Glen Harris, confirmed to Deadline. She was 93.
"It is with the greatest remorse and sadness to announce that Estelle Harris has passed on this evening at 6:25 pm. Her kindness, passion, sensitivity, humor, empathy, and love were practically unrivaled, and she will be terribly missed by all those who knew her," he said.
The New York-born actress began her acting career in amateur community theaters as she raised her children. However, she went on to star in a multitude of series, including Futurama, Curb Your Enthusiasm, ER, Living Single, Mad About You, Married... with Children, and Night Court. She is perhaps best known for playing George Costanza's (Jason Alexander) mother on Seinfeld. She made 27 appearances on the show from1992 to 1998.
Harris was also known for voicing Mrs. Potato Head in films two, three, and four of Pixar's Toy Story franchise. More film credits nclude Playing Mona Lisa, My Giant, The Odd Couple II, Chairman of the Board, This Is My Life, Stand and Deliver, Once Upon a Time in America, Summerdog, and Looking Up.
Thanks to her sense of humor and unique voice, Harris was also known on Madison Avenue as the "Queen of Commercials"; she was known for booking as many as 25 commercials in one year.
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- Age: Dec. at 93 (1928-2022)
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
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John Edward Szeles, known professionally as “The Amazing Johnathan,” passed away on February 22, 2022, due to heart disease. He was 63.
“Johnathan Szeles (Amazing Johnathan ) has passed away at around 11:30 pm 2/22/22. My heart is broken. One of my best friends, one of the funniest humans I’ve ever met. I loved him so very much, and will never forget this wonderful, amazing, kind, funny, great person,” fellow standup comic Penny Wiggins posted on Facebook. His wife, Anastasia Synn, also confirmed the sad news to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Szeles had been diagnosed with a "serious heart condition" in March 2007, and later revealed it to be cardiomyopathy, a degenerative disease that weakens the heart muscle.
Szeles, the self-described “Freddy Krueger of comedy,” gained mainstream fame on Criss Angel’s reality TV show Mindfreak. He was known for shocking audiences with faux-gore bits in his shows. He gained even more notoriety as the subject of 2019 Hulu documentary, The Amazing Johnathan Documentary. The film followed him as he tried to pursue a comeback at 60, despite his terminal ill diagnosis. It also dealt with his ongoing drug addiction.
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- Age: Dec. at 63 (1958-2022)
- Birthplace: Michigan, USA, Detroit
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- Love Thy Neighbor
Jack Smethurst
English television and film comic actor Jack Smethurst passed away on February 16, 2022. He was 89.
He made his film debut in 1958's Carry On Sergeant. This was followed by parts in the films Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), A Kind of Loving (1962), Run with the Wind (1966), Night After Night After Night (1970), the big-screen version of Please Sir! (1971) and the ITV sitcom For the Love of Ada (1970–71) amongst others, before his big break.
Smethurst achieved national fame in Love Thy Neighbour, a television sitcom that ran for a phenomenally successful eight series during the 1970s. Such was the sitcom’s popularity, with viewing figures sometimes exceeding 20 million over a five-year run (1972-76), that it spawned a 1973 film and a 1975 stage tour.
After Love Thy Neighbour ended, his film appearances were rare, but included Chariots of Fire (1981), the John Goodman vehicle King Ralph (1991; which re-united him with his Love Thy Neighbour co-star Rudolph Walker) and 1996's La Passione.
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- Age: Dec. at 89
- Birthplace: Collyhurst, Manchester, England
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British comedy legend Barry Cryer passed away on January 27, 2022. He was 86.
Cryer was known for working with some of the greatest British comedians and writing for comedy. This included writing jokes for Bob Hope, Richard Pryor, George Burns, The Two Ronnies and Morecambe and Wise.
In a statement from Cryer's family, they said "He had a gift for friendship and a genius for putting people at their ease. Oh yes, and he made many people laugh. A lot."
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- Age: Dec. at 87
- Birthplace: Leeds, England
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- Anirudh Koul
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Comedian and game show host Louie Anderson passed away on January 21, 2022, due to complications caused by large B-cell lymphoma. He was 68.
Just days earlier, Anderson had been hospitalized in Las Vegas for the cancer. His longtime publicist Glenn Schwartz confirmed the news to Deadline.
Anderson, one of 11 children, was a counselor to troubled children before he launched his comedy career after winning first place at the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition. The host of the competition, Henny Youngman, hired him as a writer, Schwartz said. Anderson made his late-night debut on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1984. He went on to appear in 1988’s Coming to America and its 2021 sequel. He reprised the Maurice role for two episodes of Lena Waithe's series Twenties in 2020.
He also had his own series, The Louie Show, on CBS from 1995-96, and debuted his animated series Life with Louie that same year. A three-time recipient of the Humanitas Prizes for writing on a children’s’ animated series, he also won two Daytime Emmys for outstanding performer in an animated program. He guest-starred on Grace Under Fire, Touched by an Angel, and Chicago Hope, and made an appearance in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He won an Emmy in 2016 for playing Christine Baskets on the FX series Baskets.
The host of Family Feud from 1999-2002, he appeared on Celebrity Family Feud in 2017, and was a regular panelist on Funny You Should Ask.
Anderson wrote the best-selling books Dear Dad - Letters from an Adult Child, Goodbye Jumbo… Hello Cruel World, and, most recently, Hey Mom. His most recent stand-up special was 2018's Louie Anderson: Big Underwear.
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- Age: Dec. at 68 (1953-2022)
- Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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- Breck Denny
Breck Denny
Robert Breck Denny Jr., a writer and actor who guested on such series as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ratched and The Shrink Next Door and was a member of comedy troupe The Groundlings, passed away on January 21, 2022. He was 34.
His family said Denny died Monday in Santa Barbara, CA, of a rare spontaneous splenic artery rupture.
After graduating from New York University with creative writing degree, Breck went into comedy writing and acting. He was a member of the Sunday Company at The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, and his play Nickel Dickers won the Encore! Producer’s Award at the 2018 Hollywood Fringe Festival.
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Comedian and actor Bob Saget passed away on January 9, 2022, at his hotel room in Orlando, FL. No cause of death was given. He was 65.
Saget had been touring the country, and last tweeted about a great audience for his show in Jacksonville, FL.
He was perhaps best known for playing patriarch Danny Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House, which ran from 1987 until 1995. He reprised his role in the Netflix reboot, Fuller House, from 2016-2020. He also hosted America's Funniest Home Videos from 1989 to 1997.
Fans of his stand-up comedy knew a much raunchier star, which was celebrated in his Comedy Central roast. He also had a recurring role on Entourage, voiced the narrator in How I Met Your Mother, and starred in Raising Dad. Sagete appeared in numerous movies, including Surviving Suburbia and Half Baked.
Most recently, Saget appeared on The Masked Singer as the Squiggly Monster. He was also working on a podcast called Bob Saget's Here for You.
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- Age: Dec. at 65 (1956-2022)
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- 1Andrea Barber Wants Everyone To Learn From How 'Deeply' and 'Fiercy' Saget Loved130 Votes
- 2'Full House' Creator Jeff Franklin Created The Role Of Danny Tanner For The 'Kind, Genuine' Saget95 Votes
- 3Norm Macdonald Couldn't Bring Himself To Insult Saget In 2008110 Votes
Rory Teasley
TikTok influencer Rory Teasley died on January 6, 2022, after his boyfriend of 10 years allegedly strangled him during a fight over a video game, Michigan's Oakland County Sheriff's Department said. He was 28.
Teasley, who went by the handle @too2pump4tv, was known for posting comedy and dance videos. He had around 200 thousand followers, and millions of views, at the time of his death.
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- Age: Dec. at 28
