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Comedian Louie Anderson Dies at 68

Comedian Louie Anderson Dies at 68
By Calum Slingerland
Published Jan 21, 2022
Louie Anderson — the Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, author and game show host — has died. Anderson's longtime publicist, Glenn Schwartz, confirmed to multiple outlets that the comedian died in Las Vegas of complications from cancer. Earlier this week, it was reported that Anderson had been hospitalized for Diffuse large B cell lymphoma. He was 68.

Born and raised in Saint Paul, MN, as the second youngest of 11 children, Anderson first worked as a counsellor to troubled children, performing comedy on the side. Per the comedian's bio, a first-place finish at the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition caught the attention of stand-up legend and host Henny Youngman, who hired him as a writer.

Anderson would go on to make his network debut in 1984 with an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. The decade also saw him land film roles in Ferris Bueller's Day Off  and Coming to America — reprising his role as Maurice in the latter's 2021 sequel, Coming 2 America.


In the '90s, Anderson's childhood-inspired animated sitcom Life with Louie. Running for 26 episodes between 1995 and 1998, the series won Anderson a pair of Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program. Live-action sitcom The Louie Show followed in 1996, airing for six episodes that year. From 1999 to 2002, Anderson was also host of Family Feud, and also made recurring appearances on Hollywood Squares.

More recently, Anderson played the role of Christine Baskets in comedy-drama series Baskets, co-created by Louis C.K., Zach Galifianakis and Jonathan Krisel. Anderson received an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for the role, which he based after his own mother.


Anderson wrote further of his childhood and self-esteem issues in books like 1989's Dear Dad: Letters from an Adult Child, which he wrote to his late father, and 2002's The F Word: How to Survive Your Family.

Find tributes to Anderson below from Gilbert Gottfried, Steve Albini, Bill Burr and more.