Richard Simmons dead at 76: Legendary TV and fitness personality passes away

Legendary TV and fitness personality Richard Simmons has been found dead at home, TMZ is reporting.

Legendary fitness guru and TV personality Richard Simmons has died at the age of 76.

According to TMZ, emergency workers were called to his home by his housekeeper on Saturday morning.

Simmons, who rose to fame in the 1970s and ‘80s after opening a series of gyms and then releasing dozens of fitness tapes and DVDs, was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene.

TMZ added that no foul play is suspected.

Richard Simmons has died. Picture: EPA/Jason Szenes

His death comes just one day after he celebrated his 76th birthday. He told People magazine in a rare interview published only yesterday he would celebrate by blowing out a candle.

“But the candle will probably be on a zucchini,” Simmons said. “You know, I’m a vegetarian.”

He also opened up about how he felt about turning 76.

“I am grateful that I’m here, that I am alive for another day. I’ll spend my birthday doing what I do every day, which is to help people.”

Simmons found fame in the 70s and 80s.

Simmons’ death comes months after he suffered a health scare.

In March, the “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” instructor told his Facebook followers that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer.

Mirror mirror on the wall what’s that blemish which is so small? There was this strange looking bump under my right eye. I had a tube of neosporin which I would put on in the morning and the evening …. it was still there. It was time to call my dermatologist,” Simmons wrote in a lengthy post at the time.

“I sat in his chair and he looked at it through a magnifying mirror. He told me he would have to scrape it and put it under the microscope. Now I am getting a little bit nervous.

“He comes back about 20 minutes later and says the C word. You have cancer,” he continued. “I asked him what kind of cancer and he said. Basel Cell Carcinoma. I told him to stop calling me dirty names. He laughed.”

Simmons circa 2006. In recent years, the outgoing star retreated from the spotlight, raising concerns for his welfare.

Simmons said he was asked to seek treatment from a “cancer doctor” who had to “burn” his skin with a small instrument to “remove the cancer cells.”

After three painful procedures, the doctors “got all the cancer cells out.”

News of his diagnosis came one day after Simmons worried his fans by revealing he was “dying.” He later backtracked and apologised for any “confusion,” saying “it was a message about saying how we should embrace every day that we have.”

After retreating from the spotlight in 2014, Simmons closed his iconic Beverly Hills, California, fitness studio, Slimmons, in 2016.

His abrupt absence led the Los Angeles Police Department to conduct a welfare check at his home in 2017, but detectives subsequently said the weight-loss expert was “perfectly fine.”

In 2022, Simmons told The Post via his rep that he was “happy, healthy and living the life he has chosen to live.”

– with Page Six