Louie Anderson, the pleasant stand-up comic, actor, and television host who earned an Emmy Award for his performance on “Baskets” and two Daytime Emmys for his animated children’s program “Life With Louie,” died on Friday in Las Vegas. He was 68 years old.
In a hospital, Mac died from diffuse large B cell lymphoma, according to his longtime publicist Glenn Schwartz.
After spending more than four decades in the spotlight, Paul Brandon Anderson had a self-deprecating humor that won him millions of fans, including Henny Youngman and Johnny Carson, who early support helped him to achieve celebrity.
In 1984, Mr. Anderson made his television debut on Johnny Carson’s “The Tonight Show,” and he killed it. The material was packed with jokes about his own weight (which at times soared to over 300 pounds), and he began his performance with the deadpan line, “I can’t stay long. I’m between meals.”
Then, after the performance, Mr. Carson escorted him back out for a second bow, which was highly unusual for comedians and especially one making his debut. According to Mr. Anderson, Mr. Carson later paid him another big compliment.
“He came by my dressing room on the way to his, stuck his head in and said, ‘Great shot, Louie,’” he told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 2002. “Because comics call that a ‘shot’ on ‘The Tonight Show.’ And that was huge for me.”
Mr. Anderson said that one night, he went from earning $500 a week for stand-up work to making twice that amount in one show. Film and television roles began arriving as well, including minor parts in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986) and “Coming to America” (1988). In 1987
In an era when stand-up comedians use desperate strategies to build their performance identity — think of Howie Mandel screaming like a baby or Sam Kinison feigning a nervous breakdown—Mr. Anderson has established a low-keyed act that might be classed as family fun.”
He said, “At a time when stand-up comedy is trafficking heavily in insult, hysteria and sexual obsessions, Mr. Anderson seems to have come up with something truly different — old-fashioned, heartwarming humor.”
That would be the bulk of his career, though he took it in some interesting directions. “Life With Louie,” which aired from 1994 to 1998 and won him Daytime Emmys in 1997 and 1998 as outstanding performer in an animated series, was a smart kids program that also attracted an adult audience; its title character, a youngster, struggled with issues
On “Baskets,” a comedic drama that aired from 2016 to 2019 and starred Zach Galifianakis as the mother of his twin sons, Mr. Anderson played in drag. In 2016, Mr. Anderson was nominated for the supporting actor Emmy three times and won in 2016 for his part.
In a 1996 interview with The Orlando Sentinel, he talked about his appeal.
“People are comfortable with me onstage,” he said. “There’s nothing hateful about my comedy. I look at it from the humanity standpoint. I’m just kind of like ‘Hey, we’re all in this together,’ and so they feel comfortable inviting me into their living rooms.”
Louis Perry Anderson was born on March 24, 1953, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His mother Zella was a housewife, and his father Louis was a jazz musician.
When he was 17, his career path changed as a result of a dare. He finished high school in St. Paul and had a job counseling troubled youngsters when his profession unexpectedly altered due to a dare.
“I went out one night with some guys from work and we saw a couple of comedians,” he recounted in a 1987 interview with The Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y. “I remarked that neither one of them was very funny, and everybody began telling me to get up there myself if I thought I could do it better.
“The joke kind of escalated over time,” he continued, “and finally one night, I did get up onstage. Once I did, I discovered that I liked it a lot. I have been doing it ever since.”
