“Ellen DeGeneres Show” producer Andy Lassner — who struggled with addiction in the past — says the late comedian Richard Lewis saved his life.
Lassner posted a touching tribute to the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star after news of his death broke Wednesday.
“He was one of the many angels in my life who saved me,” Lassner wrote of Lewis, who died of a heart attack at age 76.
Lassner posted that within a year of moving to Los Angeles in 1998, addiction had “once again ravaged” his life.
“I was a mess,” he wrote, adding that he barely remembers being taken to a 12-step meeting at the time.
One dim memory he did have, however, was Lewis chasing him down in the parking lot, where he insisted on giving Lassner his phone number, instructing him to, “Call me tomorrow just to tell me you’re OK.”
“We spoke. I gave him my number and said I’d check in again,” he continued, adding that “the problem was I had given Richard my number and he wouldn’t stop f–king call me.”
Lassner tried to get the standup comedian to stop incessantly calling but “he wouldn’t stop. Every single day. ‘Hey it’s Richard. Call me.’ I wouldn’t return his call. He was so annoyingly persistent.”
Then one day the Daytime Emmy winner hit rock bottom. He was holed up in a hotel room on Sunset Boulevard. The comedian called yet again and Lassner answered.
The next thing he remembered was “a knock on the door and there stood Richard” who took the troubled Lassner to his house and then arranged for him to go back into rehab.
“This time I stayed clean and we stayed in touch for years,” he wrote. “And then less so. And then not at all. And now he’s gone. He was the menchiest of menches.”
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He concluded, “My regret today is not staying in touch. Life is fleeting. Stay connected. ❤️❤️.”
Lassner told that Lewis was…
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