Richard was one of the funniest comedians, a soul tormented with addiction that he overcame and showed others the way to do so.

Rest in peace Richard, the world is a slightly darker place without you in it.

The best we can do is make an impact in someone's life. Richard was that person.

Andy Lassner and Jamie Lee Curtis have long told of how Richard helped them shake their addictions.

Lassner wrote:

One dim memory he did have, however, was Lewis chasing him down in the parking lot, where he insisted on giving Lassner his phone number, instructing him to, "Call me tomorrow just to tell me you're OK."

"We spoke. I gave him my number and said I'd check in again," he continued, adding that "the problem was I had given Richard my number and he wouldn't stop f"king call me."

Lassner tried to get the standup comedian to stop incessantly calling but "he wouldn't stop. Every single day. Hey it's Richard. Call me.' I wouldn't return his call. He was so annoyingly persistent."

Then one day the Daytime Emmy winner hit rock bottom. He was holed up in a hotel room on Sunset Boulevard. The comedian called yet again and Lassner answered.

The next thing he remembered was "a knock on the door and there stood Richard" who took the troubled Lassner to his house and then arranged for him to go back into rehab.

"This time I stayed clean and we stayed in touch for years," he wrote. "And then less so. And then not at all. And now he's gone. He was the menchiest of menches."