“Curb Your Enthusiasm” treated the late Richard Lewis 'like a god'

"Thank you all for being so sweet to me," the comedian said in a behind-the-scenes video after the long-running HBO sitcom wrapped.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is over, but one of its stars didn't live to see the finale air. Comedian Richard Lewis, who played a fictionalized version of himself alongside Larry David since season 1 of the HBO sitcom, died in February. But before passing on, Lewis made clear how much he loved being part of the show

In behind-the-scenes footage of the final Curb scene, Lewis took a moment after wrap to make clear how much the show meant to him over the years.

"Larry David has treated me like a god. All of you have," Lewis said to the gathered cast and crew after wrapping the final scene. "This is the greatest experience of my career, and I love each and every one of you. I'm honored to be working with arguably the greatest sitcom writer of the last two centuries. God bless all of you, and thanks for being so sweet to me."

Lewis had been open about his health problems for years before his death, and was only able to film one episode of season 11 in 2021. But he returned in full force for the final season. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lewis' longtime Curb costar Susie Essman recalled shooting the last scenes with him just months before his death.

"I know how much it meant to him to be able to be in this season because we were all in contact. It's very hard, if you're a friend of Richard Lewis, not to be in constant contact with him," Essman tells EW. "He had suffered so much. He had back surgery and shoulder surgery and Parkinson's. He was so upset that he couldn't be in more than one episode in season 11. So it meant so much to him to come back in season 12."

"We shot those final scenes just three weeks before he died — to the day, I believe. I spoke to him right after that, so I know it meant the world to him. He loved the show, he loved Larry, he loved all of us. So to have him on this season, it was the greatest gift he could have gotten, I think — and the greatest gift that he could have given to us."

All 12 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm are now streaming on Max. They are full of many, many hilarious scenes with Lewis.

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.