Richard Simmons Dead at 76 | TMZ Live
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... police and fire responded to a call from his housekeeper just before 10 AM Saturday and pronounced him dead at the scene. We're told no foul play is suspected at this time, and cops are investigating it as a natural death.
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00:00Richard Simmons passed away at the age of 76 as we said at the top of the show
00:06right in the middle of so many things that had happened over this weekend, but
00:11You know, I hate to say this but it was overshadowed because it did get a lot of attention and as it deserves
00:18But it just feels like it got pushed to the side, right?
00:21And I just want so much more for Richard Simmons who we've covered obviously, you know for a very long time
00:29And it's not just covering him he was a huge force for an untold thousands
00:36thousands who got
00:38Desperately needed help from this guy people who were really struggling people who were suicidal
00:43people who had given up hope and he always would
00:49Welcome them. Yeah, all of them with open arms and did so much good for people what I find
00:55So sad we're gonna get into we have some new details about what happened at his home
00:59before he was found by his housekeeper, but
01:03The thing of what you just said about all the people that he helped
01:07What's really sad about this for me is that just recently in this the last year. He's been more active on
01:15social media
01:16He's posted things where he's still trying to help people and he was doing it
01:21Obviously wasn't out in public anymore
01:23But he was still reaching out to people and trying to be that beacon for them
01:28Just through social media. And in fact, even he recently had posted
01:32An audio message where he left this message for his fans. Hi everybody. It's Richard
01:39Happy May 6th
01:432024
01:44Thank you so much for reading my messages
01:48Roses are red
01:50Violets are blue
01:52Do you know how much I?
01:55Love you. Have a beautiful day. Bye for now
02:00So I want to tell you something. I spoke with somebody who's an old friend of mine
02:06Who is very close to Richard?
02:08and talked to him a lot and spoke with him last week right before his birthday and
02:14my friend said he was really depressed and
02:18Was talking about that he you know growing old how hard it was on him
02:22obviously knowing his birthday was coming up right right and then he called him the day before Richard died on Friday and
02:30He has his private number and Richard always answers because as you know
02:34He's always at home and did not answer the phone and he found it really kind of unusual based on his is
02:41Just a habit. I imagine it your friend was calling to wish him a happy birthday. Yeah
02:46Which we've learned really played into what happened at Richard's home on Friday evening because
02:52He had fallen. He'd gone to the bathroom some point on Friday evening and felt dizzy
03:00when he had a fall his housekeeper who is lives there in the house with him went in and actually
03:07Helped him up. And what we're told is that she
03:11Wanted him to get medical attention said why don't we go see a doctor or go to the emergency room or something?
03:17Which by the way for Richard I was thinking about this has to be quite a thing because we know that he would wear
03:24Disguises well, remember we have video of him actually coming back from Cedars-Sinai, which is near his house, right?
03:29And he was being shielded
03:30So he did not want to be seen be a whole you know a whole thing to go to the doctor
03:34What we're told is he said to the housekeeper. Maybe we'll do it on Saturday
03:38I just want to be at home tonight because it's you know
03:42He was thinking about his birthday after that the housekeeper came in a little before 10 a.m
03:47And found him on the bed on the floor Saturday on the bed on the floor next to the bed
03:52Deceased called fire called cops and he was pronounced at the scene now what I've talked to you from sources are that there were no
03:58Injuries from the fall. He didn't have any bumps or bruises. He was nothing up. No, nothing. I think I don't know
04:03No, no obvious signs of anything. So they're doing an autopsy just to make sure you know
04:08LAPD our HD came out just to make sure there was nothing foul play nothing suspicious and the autopsy will be what tells it at
04:14The end of the day. Well, it could be it sounds like this could be one of two things either
04:19He fell because of some underlying problem, right or the fall itself
04:24You don't necessarily have the for example, you can't see it, right sometimes if you hit your head
04:30It can cause all sorts of significant problems, which is why a lot of people go to the emergency room
04:37So we don't know if one or the other is what ultimately caused his death, but it sounds like it was one of the other
04:45Josh pray from Florida. I do want to say that Richard Simmons was a beacon of positivity
04:50Me being a 39 year old man. I remember being young and hearing his infomercials hearing his commercials
04:57Motivating and encouraging people Richard Simmons was definitely the type of human that it could be 5 a.m
05:03and he could make you want to wake up and do 1,500 crunches and
05:063,000 sit-ups and
05:0850,000 jumping jacks and he's one of the individuals that will be gone too soon
05:13No matter which age that he would have passed away. We all would have felt that he was gone too soon
05:19So my heart goes out to his friends and his family and his loved ones
05:23Richard Simmons is definitely gone too soon, but I'm thankful that I got to experience the positivity that brought
05:33Him to life