Comic Richard Jeni dead in apparent suicide

Sun Mar 11, 8:48 PM ET


Stand-up comedian and actor Richard Jeni, a regular on NBC's "The Tonight Show," has died in an apparent suicide, police said on Sunday.

Los Angeles police spokeswoman Norma Eisenman said a woman called police on Saturday morning from the West Hollywood area and said: "My boyfriend just shot himself in the face."

Jeni, 45, was found alive and taken to hospital but was pronounced dead about an hour later, Eisenman said.

Jeni appeared in movies including as "The Mask" and in the TV show "Everybody Hates Chris," and was named in 2004 in the Comedy Central list of 100 great stand-up comedians.

He was a regular guest on "The Tonight Show" when Johnny Carson hosted the late-night talk and variety show and also after Jay Leno took over as host in 1992.

Born in Brooklyn, he also appeared in the HBO Comedy Hour and wrote material for the 2005 Academy Awards show.

Authorities have scheduled an autopsy for Monday to determine the exact cause of death.


http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/en...367130600.html

__________________

Awww man, that's horrible. At first, since I didn't see a pic, I thought it was Richard Lewis (I think he's who I'm thinking of). They always say comedians are dark and depressed. But that's a shame -- he was a funny guy.

It's a very expressive way to go. And at least it was deliberate, not accidental. He knew what he was doing. Will his wife spend the next 15 years getting pilloried for it? I bet he was about to leave her and go solo anyway...

__________________
Time is the distance that you can't return by miles.

I escaped somehow. Let's go

actualy [sic] I have quite a blessed life if I'm honest. I have many people to love, hate few and have few money problem's [sic].... What more does a person need? Oh yeah and I have some kind of humbleness unlike you of course ^_^ ~ CarefulCarpenter

That's terrible! At least he had the balls to off himself. I always back out.