{"id":292481,"date":"2020-05-16T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T19:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b1152755"},"modified":"2020-05-16T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T19:10:00","slug":"legendary-comic-actor-fred-willard-dead-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/music-news\/legendary-comic-actor-fred-willard-dead-at-86\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary Comic Actor Fred Willard Dead at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"photo-txt-0\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"47.070902394107\">\n<div class=\"column post-content__image--left post-content__image\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\" readability=\"32\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image--full\" src=\"https:\/\/akns-images.eonline.com\/eol_images\/Entire_Site\/2020416\/rs_634x1024-200516120014-634-fred-willard.cm.51620.jpg?fit=inside|900:auto&amp;output-quality=90\" title=\"Fred Willard\" alt=\"Fred Willard\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"image__credits\">Todd Williamson\/Invision\/AP\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-photo-text\" readability=\"33.928229665072\">\n<p>It&#8217;s a sad day for Hollywood fans around the world.<\/p>\n<p>E! News can confirm that&nbsp;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/fred_willard\">Fred Willard<\/a><\/strong> has passed away.&nbsp;He was 86 years old.<\/p>\n<p>According to&nbsp;the late actor&#8217;s rep, he died of natural causes on May 15.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old. He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end,&#8221;&nbsp;Willard&#8217;s daughter <strong>Hope<\/strong>&nbsp;said in a statement shared with us.<\/p>\n<p>She added, &#8220;We loved him so very much. We will miss him forever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The legendary comic actor was best known&nbsp;for his roles in&nbsp;<em>Anchorman<\/em>, <em>This Is Spinal Tap<\/em>, <em>Modern Family<\/em> and his various&nbsp;appearances in <strong>Christopher Guest<\/strong>&#8216;s movies, which include: <em>Best in Show<\/em>, <em>Waiting for Guffman<\/em>, <em>A Mighty Wind<\/em> and others.<\/p>\n<p>Upon hearing the news of Willard&#8217;s death, his fellow colleagues and former co-stars shared their heartache.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just learned of Fred Willard&#8217;s passing. Just about the funniest human ever to walk the planet,&#8221; <strong>Harry Shearer<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/theharryshearer\/status\/1261731181659226116\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">expressed on Twitter<\/a>. &#8220;An amazing talent, in telekinetic contact with the very wellspring of comedy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"text-2\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"55.798969072165\">\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-text-only\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\" readability=\"13.39175257732\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/jamie_lee_curtis\">Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a><\/strong>, who is married to Christopher Guest, wrote a touching tribute to the late actor.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A fond farewell to Mr. Fred Willard. How lucky we all are that we got to witness his great gifts,&#8221; her caption read on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CAQf7OmgMwW\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Instagram<\/a>. &#8220;Thanks for the deep belly laughs. You are now with Mary. Home safe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/jack_black\">Jack Black<\/a><\/strong> responded to her post with a blue heart emoji.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fred Willard could not have been funnier. He was pure joy,&#8221; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/judd_apatow\">Judd Apatow<\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JuddApatow\/status\/1261732821397192704?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shared<\/a>. &#8220;And the sweetest person you could ever meet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"text-4\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"56.44962406015\">\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-text-only\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\" readability=\"16.628571428571\">\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/jimmy_kimmel\">Jimmy Kimmel<\/a><\/strong> wrote, &#8220;There was no man sweeter or funnier. We were so lucky to know Fred Willard and will miss his many visits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fred Willard was the funniest person that I&#8217;ve ever worked with. He was a sweet, wonderful man,&#8221; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/steve_carell\">Steve Carell<\/a><\/strong> said on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/stevecarell\/status\/1261735731728277504?s=21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Modern Family<\/em> star <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/jesse_tyler_ferguson\">Jesse Tyler Ferguson<\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jessetyler\/status\/1261732196240375808?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">expressed<\/a> his heartache.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Rest In Peace sweet @Fred_Willard. You will always be a true original and I am so honored that our lives intersected,&#8221; he shared. &#8220;No one will ever come close to replacing your genius.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/christina_applegate\">Christina Applegate<\/a><\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/1capplegate\/status\/1261735833570181121?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>, &#8220;Gutted. His immense talent and kindness will never be forgotten. We love you Fred Willard. Thank you for the decades of laughter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"text-5\" data-hook=\"scrollable-block\" readability=\"56.5\">\n<section data-textblock-tracking=\"text-block-text-only\" data-swiftype-index=\"false\" readability=\"3\">\n<p>Willard&#8217;s passing&nbsp;comes less than two years after his&nbsp;wife <strong>Mary<\/strong>&nbsp;died at 71.&nbsp;He is survived by his&nbsp;daughter and grandson.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eonline.com\/news\/1152755\/legendary-comic-actor-fred-willard-dead-at-86?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&#038;utm_source=eonline&#038;utm_medium=rssfeeds&#038;utm_campaign=rss_topstories\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: E! Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Todd Williamson\/Invision\/AP\/Shutterstock It&#8217;s a sad day for Hollywood fans around the world. E! News can confirm that&nbsp;Fred Willard has passed away.&nbsp;He was 86 years old. According to&nbsp;the late actor&#8217;s rep, he died of natural causes on May 15. &#8220;My father passed away very peacefully last night at the fantastic age of 86 years old. He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-music-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-19 21:38:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIDN - The Lift FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kidn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}