Actor and comedian Bob Saget, scheduled to appear next month in Spokane, dies at 65
Bob Saget, the comedian and actor best known for his starring role in “Full House” and hosting the original “America’s Funniest Home Videos” in the 1980s and ’90s, died Sunday at age 65.
According to the sheriff’s office in Orange County, Fla., he was found in a hotel room in Orlando.
“Earlier today, deputies were called to the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes for a call about an unresponsive man in a hotel room,” the sheriff’s office account posted on Twitter. “The man was identified as Robert Saget & pronounced deceased on scene. Detectives found no signs of foul play or drug use in this case.”
Fellow comedians and friends praised Saget not only for his wit, but also his kindness.
“I am broken. I am gutted. I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him,” wrote John Stamos, who co-starred with Saget on “Full House. “I love you so much Bobby.”
Norman Lear, who called Saget a close friend, wrote the comedian “was as lovely a human as he was funny. And to my mind, he was hilarious.”
“In often a ruthless business he was historically not just hilarious but more importantly one of the kindest human beings I ever met in my career,” actor Richard Lewis wrote on Twitter.
Saget was in Florida as part of his “I Don’t Do Negative Comedy Tour,” according to his Twitter feed. He was scheduled to appear at the Spokane Comedy Club on Feb. 18-19 with two shows each day.
Saget the standup showed his flip side with what became a much-talked-about cameo in the 2005 documentary “The Aristocrats” – in which 100 comics riffed on the world’s dirtiest joke – that revealed his notoriously filthy sense of humor.
Prior to an appearance at the Spokane venue in 2019, the comedian talked about the juxtaposition of his shocking standup material with the wholesome image cultivated on his primetime sitcom in which he played squeaky clean Danny Tanner, a widower and father to three young girls, on “Full House.” The show brought fame to Olsen twins Mary-Kate and Ashley when it debuted in 1987.
“It was just I cursed a lot and there was a lot of sexual content. Not a lot, but it was more like a 9-year-old with bad words, that was how I always looked at it,” Saget told The Spokesman-Review in January 2019. “That’s the furthest thing in the world from what I would do right now. But also I’m 62 years old. I have three daughters.”
He also performed at the club in 2016.
“My standup, I’ve been doing it since I was 17,” Saget told The Spokesman-Review before that show. “So that’s something that’s always been wrong with me. All the weird childhood crap I had, my standup always was like an old friend that let me get onstage and get my devils out.”
Saget had daughters Aubrey, Lara and Jennifer with first wife Sherri Kramer before divorcing in 1997. He married Kelly Rizzo in 2018.
Staff writer Kip Hill contributed to this report.