Louie Anderson, Emmy Award winning actor and stand- up comedian, has died due to complications from cancer, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting. He was 68.
Anderson’s role as Christine Baskets on the FX series TV show “Baskets” earned him an Emmy Award.
He was being treated for cancer in a Las Vegas hospital after being diagnosed with a type of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, his publicist Glenn Schwartz told The Hollywood Reporter. Anderson died Friday morning.
Anderson was selected as one of the 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time by Comedy Central in 2004. He co-created “Life With Louie,” a Saturday morning animated series and hosted a revival of the game show “Family Feud.”
Anderson’s portrayal of Christine on “Baskets” won him a Primetime Emmy in 2016, an award he was nominated for three times.
He was born Louie Perry Anderson on March 24, 1953 in St. Paul, Minnesota and was the second-youngest of 11 children. He had five brothers and five sisters and grew up in the Roosevelt Homes housing project.
Anderson made his film debut as a taxi driver in “Cloak & Dagger” in 1984 and had roles in “Quicksilver,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “Ratboy.” He was in “The Wrong Guys” with Richard Lewis and Richard Belzer in 1988 and had a memorable cameo in “Coming To America” starring Eddie Murphy.