Fitness guru Richard Simmons, known for his positive outlook and bestselling exercise videotapes, has died at age 76, his representative told ABC News.
The Los Angeles Police Department responded to a 911 call from his housekeeper and found Simmons dead, according to ABC News, citing unnamed sources.
In his career, Simmons sold more than 20 million fitness VHS tapes and DVDs, including the iconic “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” series. His series was famous for featuring so-called “real people” over athletic models, promoting the idea that exercise was for everyone. In 2010, he claimed that he helped his followers lose 12 million pounds.
He continued to teach regular classes at his Los Angeles-based studio, Slimmons, despite his heightened fame, until he abruptly stopped in 2014.
The popular podcast “Missing Richard Simmons,” released by Dan Taberski in February 2017, once again put the spotlight on the reclusive star and his wellness. The Los Angeles Police Department visited Simmons’ home due to the renewed frenzy, reporting that he was “perfectly fine.” Some criticized the podcast for invading Simmons’ privacy and creating an unfair expectation that the fitness legend owed the public an explanation of his whereabouts.
Simmons later sent a message to fans after a brief hospitalization for “severe indigestion” in April 2017, thanking them for their concern.
As interest in home workouts soaring during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Simmons’ team began sharing workouts from his archive on a YouTube page.
Larry Busacca via Getty Images
Simmons was born Milton Teagle Simmons in New Orleans, Louisiana, on July 12, 1948, to two entertainer parents.
He wrote in his 1999 autobiography “Still Hungry — After All These Years” that his mother was often on the road and his father would punish young Milton by acting as though he weren’t there. According to a 1981 People article, he felt overshadowed by his older brother, and began overeating in reaction to the feelings.
He credited the start of his fitness journey to a note he received while an art student in Italy that read, “Fat people die young. Please don’t die. Anonymous.” He later began his fitness empire in 1975 with a salad bar, Ruffage, and workout studio, The Anatomy Asylum, which was later renamed Slimmons. As a fitness icon, Simmons put his name on 12 books, 17 DVDs and 37 videotapes, according to his Wikipedia page.
Through the years, Simmons became a fixture in entertainment. A frequent guest for late-night hosts David Letterman and Jay Leno, he also hosted his own show, “The Richard Simmons Show,” from 1980 to 1984, and had a recurring role on “General Hospital,” appearing as himself.
Beyond his peak fame in the ’80s and ’90s, Simmons made lasting fans into the new millennium by offering both support and motivation in their journeys to health, whether in person at his weekly exercise classes, his annual weight loss cruises or by reaching out to people online and over the phone.
“It’s trust,” Richard Simmons told Entertainment Tonight in 1982, speaking about his connection to his fans. “They trust me with their lives, and I trust them with my life.” Beyond weight loss, the icon also promoted causes he believed in, once testifying before Congress in 2008 on behalf of promoting physical education for children.
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