Bob Saget, the comedian and actor arguably known best by audiences as wholesome patriarch Danny Tanner on the sitcom “Full House,” has died, his family confirmed in a statement to CNN.
He was 65.
“We are devastated to confirm that our beloved Bob passed away today,” the Saget family said in their statement. “He was everything to us and we want you to know how much he loved his fans, performing live and bringing people from all walks of life together with laughter. Though we ask for privacy at this time, we invite you to join us in remembering the love and laughter that Bob brought to the world.”
Saget was found dead in a hotel room on Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes, according to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
“The man was identified as Robert Saget & pronounced deceased on scene. Detectives found no signs of foul play or drug use in this case,” the Sheriff’s statement read.
The cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner, the Sheriff’s office added.
Saget was in Florida as part of his comedy tour. According to tour dates pinned to his Twitter account, he performed Saturday night at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
He tweeted after the show, “Loved tonight’s show @PV_ConcertHall in Jacksonville. Appreciative audience. Thanks again to @RealTimWilkins for opening. I had no idea I did a 2 hr set tonight. I’m happily addicted again to this s—t.”
Saget, though known on the stage and among his friends for his raunchy humor, first became known to audiences on family-friendly programming. He starred as the widowed father of three girls on ABC’s “Full House” and then as host of the network’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” clip show.
As Saget recalled to Jake Tapper in a July 2021 interview, the track of his career was unexpected.
“‘Full House’ was an accident,” he said. “I got fired on CBS and was asked to be in ‘Full House.’”
The sitcom, which starred Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and twins Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen in one role, ran for eight seasons. It lived on in syndication with strong enough nostalgia surrounding it that Netflix picked up a spin-off in 2016, “Fuller House,” starring Bure but featuring frequent appearances from original stars, including Saget, Dave Coulier and John Stamos. It ran for five seasons, concluding in 2020.
“I’m close with all the kids. It doesn’t happen a lot in the world where you stay close with all the people,” Saget told Tapper. “We’re an unusual cast in that way that I have been able to remain close with everybody, because I don’t take eight years of my life lightly and then the other five or six years, six seasons.”
His “Full House” co-star Stamos expressed his grief over the loss of his friend and former colleague on Sunday.
“I am broken. I am gutted,” Stamos wrote on Twitter. “I am in complete and utter shock. I will never ever have another friend like him. I love you so much Bobby.”
Following his first round of sitcom fame, Saget worked steadily in film and television roles but became known to a new generation of sitcom fans on CBS’s “How I Met Your Mother,” acting as narrator and the voice of future Ted Mosby. That show ran until 2014.
Throughout the years, Saget remained a fixture in stand-up comedy, releasing multiple specials over the years and taking his show on the road.
Saget’s reputation for reveling in a much edgier brand of comedy could be seen in movies like “The Aristocrats” — exploring the competition among comics to tell the filthiest version of the same joke — and his guest stint on HBO’s “Entourage” as a version of himself.
Asked by Esquire to define his humor in a 2013 interview, Saget explained, “I am basically just a nine-year-old boy that evolved.” Toward that end, Saget seemed to relish pushing back against his success in squeaky-clean shows, telling dirty jokes at ABC events to make the executives squirm.
Saget was in the midst of a tour at the time of his death that was set to take him to locations in New York, Canada and several other locations in the coming months.
According to his website, Saget often hosted comedy events to raise money for the Scleroderma Research Foundation, for which he served on the board of directors. He lost his sister to the chronic disease in 1994, his website said.
In 2020, he launched a podcast, titled “Bob Saget’s Here For You,” an interview show where he welcomed guests like Tiffany Haddish, Jason Sudeikis, Whoopi Goldberg and Norman Lear.
Lear was one of the many who paid tribute to Saget on Sunday.
“Bob Saget was as lovely a human as he was funny,” Lear wrote on Twitter. “And to my mind, he was hilarious. We were close friends and I could not have loved him more.”
Fellow comedian and podcaster Marc Maron added: “Oh no. RIP Bob Saget. Truly one of the nicest guys and so funny. Very sad.”
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried described his “shock” over the news, writing on Twitter: “I just spoke with Bob a few days ago. We stayed on the phone as usual making each other laugh. RIP to friend, comedian & fellow Aristocrat Bob Saget.”
The-CNN-Wire
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