Richard Simmons dies; fitness guru was 76

Richard Simmons waves to a crowd at AIDS Walk Los Angeles in 2013.

July 13, 2024 Updated 4:20 PM PT

Richard Simmons, the colorful fitness guru who turned aerobic dancing and positive energy into decades of fame, died Saturday, law enforcement sources said. He was 76.

Simmons was found at his home, and there was no evidence of foul play, sources told The Times.

Simmons specialized in helping obese people lose weight, starting with a Los Angeles fitness studio and eventually making appearances on TV shows, including a popular stint on “General Hospital.”

Tom Estey, who worked as a representative for Simmons for 32 years, on Saturday lamented the fitness guru’s death and asked his fans to celebrate his memory.

“Today, this planet lost an angel,” Estey said. “It’s a very somber day. I think kindness is a very strong word. The world has lost touch with kindness, but he never did. With Richard Simmons, what you saw was what you get.”

In his biography, Simmons said struggling with being overweight inspired him to help others.

Over the years, he hosted a variety of shows, produced videos and even had a chain of fitness studios. All the while, he made regular appearances in movies and TV shows.

In recent years, Simmons had become the subject of fascination, some of it unwanted. He retreated from public view, and some worried about his health.

In 2017, the “Missing Richard Simmons” podcast revisited the speculation behind Simmons’ welfare, although he refuted many of the rumors.

Estey recently told “Entertainment Tonight” that Simmons was celebrating his 76th birthday by working on a new Broadway musical.

Simmons, who was active on social media, appeared to be in good spirits in recent days. He posted a black-and-white photograph of himself next to a cake on his birthday to mark the occasion.

“I never got so many messages about my birthday in my life!” Simmons wrote on Facebook. “I am sitting here writing emails. Have a most beautiful rest of your Friday.”

It was a marked change of pace from earlier in the year when Simmons had posted cryptic messages ruminating over his mortality.

“I am … dying,” Simmons wrote on Facebook. “Oh I can see your faces now. The truth is we all are dying. Every day we live we are getting closer to our death. Why am I telling you this? Because I want you to enjoy your life to the fullest every single day. Get up in the morning and look at the sky … count your blessings and enjoy. “

Simmons had shared in March that he’d been diagnosed with skin cancer. He noted a “strange looking bump” underneath his right eye. He said a dermatologist found it to be basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common forms of skin cancer that can form due to long-term exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet light.

Milton Teagle Simmons was born on July 12, 1948, in New Orleans to Leonard Douglas and Shirley May Simmons. He has one brother, Lenny Simmons.

The family was creative; Leonard was an emcee, and Shirley was a dancer, who later appeared in one of Simmons’ workout videos for seniors. Simmons learned to charm customers as a child selling pralines, according to his biography.

Simmons went to Catholic School, and graduated from Cor Jesu High School.

Despite becoming one of the world’s best-known fitness influencers, Simmons’ early years were marked by body image issues and struggles with his weight.

Simmons grew up in the French Quarter in New Orleans, where, his biography noted, “lard was a food group and dessert mandatory.” The young Richard reportedly weighed 268 pounds when he graduated high school.

His biography notes that Simmons tried “everything from bizarre diets to laxatives” before he began exercising and more “moderate eating.”

Earlier this year, actor Pauly Shore portrayed Simmons in a short film called “The Court Jester,” which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and was produced by the Wolper Organization, a Warner Bros. subsidiary. In promoting the movie, Shore had also teased the production of a larger biopic on the fitness icon, noting his fascination with Simmons’ selflessness.

“It was always about helping people,” Shore said in a January interview with The Times. “When you watched him, he felt very sincere when it came to helping overweight people or people that had mental issues.... And he was also very silly and funny and goofy and didn’t take himself serious. You always hear these kinds of self-help people, but they’re very serious, there’s nothing really funny about him. And he was f— hilarious.”

Simmons, however, made it clear that he was not on board with the film.

“You may have heard they may be doing a movie about me with Pauly Shore,” Simmons wrote in a post. “I have never given my permission for this movie. So don’t believe everything you read.”

Fitness guru Richard Simmons dead at 76

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