RIP - Remembering Richard Jeni [04/14/1957] - [03/10/2007]

Comedian Richard Jeni has passed away due to depression, and well friends this is depressing considering how full of life he always seemed. You never knows who is suffering from mental issues.

The official cause of death as reported On March 10, 2007, Jeni was found by his girlfriend Amy Murphy, a weather anchor and reporter for KTTV in Los Angeles, with a .38-caliber Colt Detective Special between his feet and an apparent self-inflicted handgun wound to the head on the bathroom floor in his West Hollywood, California home. Jeni and Murphy had been conversing in bed, discussing breakfast and their plans for the day, when Murphy left to cook breakfast downstairs. After a few minutes, she heard the sound of a gunshot, ran upstairs, discovered Jeni’s condition, and called 9-1-1.

Police and paramedics arrived and transported Jeni to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, 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 coupled with fits of psychotic paranoia.” According to the coroner’s report released in June 2007, Jeni had a history of schizophrenia and had been taking antidepressants 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 YouTube as well as on the radio. On March 12, 2007, Jeni’s death was mentioned on The Tonight Show by 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 HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, to Jeni and discussed his death on Larry King Live.

While we mourn let’s check out one of Richard Jeni’s best work in 1997 HBO special “A Good Catholic Boy” Enjoy!