Comedy has lost one of its greats. Kathy Griffin was among one of the few people to spend time with legendary comedian and actor Garry Shandling before his sudden death on Thursday, March 24, and the funnywoman couldn’t be more heartbroken about his passing.
“I’m crushed. That man made me laugh,” Griffin, 55, told Us Weekly in a statement. “Spoke to me as a peer. Even though I’ve known him since the ’90s, it’s in the last few years that we have had meaningful and memorable one-on-one talks. I had no idea our last one would be four days ago.”
The pals hung out over the weekend, and Griffin shared a sweet photo via Twitter of herself with the Larry Sanders Show creator and actor Bob Odenkirk.
“Sunday, my longtime friend Garry Shandling was here, making every1 laugh,” she captioned the shot. “I loved him. I’ll miss our talks the most.”
Shandling died at a Los Angeles–area hospital on Thursday, police confirmed to Us Weekly.
The news of his death at age 66 was met with an outpouring of memories and utter shock from celebrities.
RIP the great Garry Shandling. Surely, one of the most influential comedians of a generation.
— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) March 24, 2016
Garry Shandling was as kind and generous as he was funny and that is saying a lot.
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) March 24, 2016
Shocked and saddened to hear about Garry Shandling’s sudden death. I was honored to get to work with him. He will be missed.
— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 24, 2016
During his final appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, Shandling revealed that he had been diagnosed with a health issue.
“So it turns out I had a hyper parathyroid gland that was undiagnosed because the symptoms mirror the exact same symptoms an older Jewish man would have,” Shandling told Seinfeld in his typical deadpan style in episode 4 of season 7.
