Bob Saget dead: Full House actor’s life ‘plagued by death’

He brought laughter to millions during his long career in comedy, but off-screen, Bob Saget's life was tinged with tragedy.

He brought laughter to generations of fans as beloved TV dad Danny Tanner, but away from the camera, actor and comedian Bob Saget’s life was marked by tragedy.

Saget, best known for his role on 90s sitcom Full House and more recently its Netflix reboot Fuller House, died suddenly at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando on Sunday, local time, according to reports.

He had been performing a stand-up show in Florida just hours before he died. The details surrounding his death are currently unclear.

As well as being a seasoned stand-up comic, Saget had graced TV screens for decades, also appearing as the narrator in CBS’s how I Met Your Mother and as the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Off-screen, however, his life was often tinged with sadness.

“There’s been a lot of death in my family,” Saget told news.com.au ahead of an Australian comedy tour in 2013.

Saget, best known for his role as Danny Tanner in Full House, has died aged 65. Picture: ABC via Getty Images

Saget at a 2016 event for the Scleroderma Research Foundation. The rare disease claimed the life of his sister at just 47. Picture: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images Scleroderma Research Foundation

“My parents have lost four kids, and we dealt with death and difficulty through odd, sick humour. My dad just ended up with a strange sense of humour and I inherited it and took it to a professional level.

“He was able to use humour to help us survive. I like to joke that he touched a lot of people, and they’re all pressing charges now.”

The comedian with Full House castmates and friends Dave Coulier and John Stamos. Picture: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

The American was known both for his clean-cut TV dad image, as well as his reputation for dirty humour as a stand-up comic. Picture: Leon Bennett/Getty Images

Saget spoke of how his dad would tell jokes to make him “feel better”.

“We’d be sitting in a restaurant when I was about nine years old, and he would say, ‘tonight the specials are cake and c***, and they’re out of cake.”

While Saget developed a reputation for dirty humour in his stand-up comedy — a sharp diversion from his years playing squeaky-clean Danny Tanner — he was serious about his charity efforts.

He was committed to his role as a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, helping to raise awareness of the rare disease that had claimed the life of his sister, Gay, at the age of 47.

The disease, also known as crest syndrome, involves the hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues.

“No one should have to suffer as my sister Gay did,” Saget wrote in an article for Today in 2016.

“She was 44 in 1992 when she was diagnosed with systemic scleroderma, a disease that strikes mostly women in the prime of their lives. She had been living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but moved back to Los Angeles to be with my parents as they sought medical care for her. Two years later, she passed away.”

Originally published as Bob Saget dead: Full House actor’s life ‘plagued by death’