US TV fitness guru Richard Simmons has died a day after his 76th birthday. Famously hyperactive, he built a mini-empire in trademark tank tops and short shorts by urging the overweight to exercise and eat better. Simmons died at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday, his publicist, Tom Estey, said in an email to the Associated Press.
He gave no further details. Los Angeles police and fire departments said they responded to a house where a man was declared dead from natural causes. As a teenager, Simmons weighed more than 19 stone but went on to become a master of many media forms, sharing his hard-won weight-loss tips as host of the Emmy-winning daytime Richard Simmons Show and author of best-selling books and the diet plan Deal-A-Meal.
He also opened exercise studios and starred in exercise videos, including the hugely successful Sweatin’ To The Oldies” line, which became a cultural phenomenon. “My food plan and diet are just two words – common sense. With a dash of good humour,” he told the Associated Press in 1982.
“I want to help people and make the world a healthier, happy place.” He was a sought-after 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 make-up and dressed like him in The Nutty Professor”, screaming “I’m a pony!” Asked if he thought he.
