Richard John Colangelo (April 14, 1957DOB according to Jeni's Website
and Social Security Death Index. – March 10, 2007), better known by his stage name Richard Jeni, was an American stand-up comedian and actor.

Early life

Jeni was born and raised in an Italian-American

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

family in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He graduated with honors from

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, earning a bachelor's degree in comparative politics. After graduating, Jeni went on to do public relations work, but was let go from five different firms in two years before doing an open-mic night in Brooklyn and deciding to pursue standup comedy as a career in 1982.

Career

Jeni first received recognition through a series of Showtime stand-up specials and frequent appearances on '' The Tonight Show''. After making his ''Tonight Show'' debut in 1988 with

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, and writer best known as the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson is a cultural phenomenon and w ...

, Jeni returned often and later made appearances on '' The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', with more appearances than any other stand-up comedian. In 1989, he won Comedy USA's Best Nightclub Comedian, as voted by comedy club owners and comedians, and his first Showtime special ''Richard Jeni: The Boy From New York City'' won a CableACE Award. Top executives at

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

picked up his first appearance on ''The HBO Comedy Hour'' in 1992, titled ''Richard Jeni: Platypus Man''. The show was well received, and Jeni returned for two more shows, going on to receive another CableACE Award for one of his HBO specials. Jeni starred on the 1995 UPN sitcom '' Platypus Man'' and appeared in the Jim Carrey film '' The Mask''. Jeni composed the theme song ("I'm A Platypus Man") for his TV series. He appeared in '' The Aristocrats'', '' Dad's Week Off'', '' An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'', and ''Chasing Robert''. He starred in commercial campaigns for Certs and Arby's, and he won a Clio Award for his work as a writer/performer in an advertising campaign for the American Dairy Association. In 2004, Jeni was ranked #57 on

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's list of the ''100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time''.

Death

On March 10, 2007, Jeni and his girlfriend, Amy Murphy—a weather anchor and reporter for KTTV in Los Angeles—had been conversing in bed, discussing breakfast and their plans for the day. Murphy left to cook breakfast downstairs, and after a few minutes heard the sound of a gunshot. Running upstairs, she found Jeni on the bathroom floor, a

revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...

at his feet, and a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Murphy called 9-1-1, and police and paramedics arrived and transported Jeni to

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, Tertiary referral hospital, tertiary, 915-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre, academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars ...

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, where he died. His family later stated with certainty that the death was a suicide and that Jeni had recently been diagnosed with "severe

clinical depression Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...

coupled with fits of psychotic

paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety, suspicion, or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of co ...

." According to the coroner's report released in June 2007, Jeni had a history of

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

and had been taking

antidepressant Antidepressants are a class of medications used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. Common side effects of antidepressants include Xerostomia, dry mouth, weight gain, dizziness, headaches, akathi ...

s and a sleeping aid. The report further indicated that his girlfriend heard him talking to himself about a week earlier, saying "just squeeze the trigger." Jeni's death was marked by many tributes, including thousands of messages on his website and

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as well as on the radio. On March 12, 2007, Jeni's death was mentioned on '' The Tonight Show'' by host Jay Leno, with accompanying footage of Jeni's last appearance on the show. On March 16, Bill Maher, who had performed with Jeni as a young comic, dedicated the fifth episode of the fifth season of his

show, ''

Real Time with Bill Maher ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' is an American television talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by stand-up comedy, comedian and political satire, political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous series ''Politically Incorrect'' on Comedy ...

'', to Jeni and discussed his death on ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' is an American television talk show broadcast by CNN from June 3, 1985 to December 16, 2010. Hosted by Larry King, it was the network's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Ma ...

''.

Filmography

* ''

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'' (1988) as Morello * '' The Mask'' (1994) as Charlie Schumaker * '' Dad's Week Off'' (1997) as Bernie * '' An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' (1998) as Jerry Glover * ''Chasing Robert'' (2007) as Rich the Bookie

Television series

* '' Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist'' (1995–2002) as Himself * '' Platypus Man'' (1995) as himself * '' Shorties Watchin' Shorties'' (2004) as himself * ''

Everybody Hates Chris ''Everybody Hates Chris'' (stylized in all lowercase) is an American semi-autobiographical sitcom created by Chris Rock and Ali LeRoi that originally aired on UPN from 2005 to 2006, and then on The CW until 2009. The series is based loosely ...

'' (2005) as Cop - Season 2, ep. 1

HBO specials

* ''Richard Jeni: Platypus Man'' (1993) * ''Richard Jeni: A Good Catholic Boy'' (1997) * ''Richard Jeni: A Big Steaming Pile of Me'' (2005)

Showtime specials

* ''Richard Jeni: Boy from New York City'' (1989) * ''Richard Jeni: Crazy from The Heat'' (1991)

Other works

* OfficeMax commercial (voice) (1995–1999) * Certs commercial *

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commercial for concession stands at the movie theater (1997)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jeni, Richard 1957 births 2007 deaths American male film actors American people of Italian descent American stand-up comedians Television personalities from New York City Hunter College alumni Male actors from Brooklyn Male suicides People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn People with mood disorders People with schizophrenia Suicides by firearm in California Comedians from Brooklyn 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians 20th-century American male actors 2007 suicides American male comedians