We hear Greg Giraldo follows Robert Schimmel as the latest quick-witted, very funny filthy comedian to die days after being rushed to a hospital. With Schimmel, it was a car accident; Giraldo overdosed on prescription drugs over the weekend, reportedly "accidentally." Too bad. very sad. Artie Lange should remember that life is precious. And we recall that as a judge on Last Comic Standing this past summer, Giraldo often looked like he'd been dragged out of a crack house without a shower.
Only 44. Went to Harvard. Comedy ain't funny. RIP.
Robert Schimmel has been fighting non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cirrhosis and demons for a few years now. None of them could kill him. A car crash could. Schimmel died last night from injuries in an accident Thirsday on Highway 10 in Phoenix. He wasn't even driving. His 19 year-old daughter Aliyah was. She swerved and lost control. She's in stable condition.
Schimmel was a "dirty" comic and frequently hilarious. He said his hero was Lenny Bruce.
His life was a real comedy.
He married his first wife, Vicki, in 1977, and they had four children. Their son Derek died of cancer at age 11.
In 1998, he he suffered a heart attack. In June 2000, he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. His treatments included chemotherapy and required long stays in the hospital. During one session, his daughter Jessica brought her best friend, Melissa, to visit, and he began an affair with Melissa, who was about half his age. When Schimmel's cancer went into remission,he broke off with Melissa and returned to Vicki. Schimmel then reunited with Melissa, and she got pregnant. He divorced Vicki and married Melissa. They had two sons.
During an interview on Howard Stern's private pay radio show on January 28, 2010, Schimmel revealed that he'd contracted cirrhosis as a result of a Hepatitis C infection from a blood transfusion and that he was trying to get on a waiting list for a donated liver.
On May 2, 2009, he was arrested for alleged domestic battery of Melissa. On May 8, 2009, Melissa Schimmel. The DA eventually declined to press charges.
We'll stop there. Robert Schimmel was booked to play the Improv in Kansas City this weekend.
Click the photo for our complete coverage of the death and legacy of the Las Vegas superstar
Watch:
Read:
"Sad, funny, undeniably authentic, Tabloid Baby tells the tale of what befell too much of mainstream television news over the past couple of decades as the bad drove out the good."
--Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes
"Burt was there for the birthing of tabloid, he became the heart of the genre, and now he's written the bible."
--Maury Povich
"... the boozy, Vegas-stomping, strip-club-hopping, Sammy Davis Jr.–fawning life he describes, in vomit-in-the-office-trash-can detail, is emulated by mainstream media personalities today!"
--LA Weekly
Watch more:
GREATEST HITS
Click the photo to see how a corporate porn-pushing gossip site fooled the world by reporting Michael Jackson's death before it was confirmed
"...a potpourri blog... a mash-up of retro stars, LA stories, forgotten details, well-worn memories, breaking scoops, all mixed in with a little spritz of analysis. (And damn---excellent grammar and sentence structure from our host!! That you certainly won't find on too many media blogs.)" --Anonymous commenter, 10.24.07
"Dear Burt: While you always had quite a flair for the dramatic, you never had much regard for the truth... Apparently you can't be bothered to read anything carefully. Maybe that is why you, like O'Reilly, make half your crap up.
Glad to hear you finally got sober." -- Barry Nolan, 04.12.08
"Hey! Who said Burt got sober?" -- Tabloid Baby, 04.12.08
Click here for Greg Giraldo's Facebook page
