Lifestyle
Richard Simmons, who believed fitness is for everyone, dies at 76
Richard Simmons made it his life’s work to make exercise fun — for everybody. He’s pictured above in 1984.
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Richard Simmons made it his life’s work to make exercise fun — for everybody. He’s pictured above in 1984.
American Broadcasting Companies/Getty Images
Richard Simmons was instantly recognizable in his short shorts, sparkly tank tops and frizzy hair. He was one of the most original, flamboyant and beloved fitness personalities of the last 50 years.
Simmons died at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday, a representative confirmed to NPR. He was 76. A Los Angeles police department spokesperson told NPR that police conducted a death investigation at an address in the Hollywood Hills. NPR used public records to match the address to a house owned by Simmons.
Police did not give a cause of death but said no foul play was suspected.
Simmons created a fitness empire beginning in the 1970s that included videos, classes, books, products, infomercials, his own show and plenty of TV appearances.
It helped that his entrepreneurship coincided with new technology — or new, at least, in the 1980s. Simmons put out fitness classes on VHS cassettes to be played on VCRs. In his lifetime, he made more than 65 fitness videos, such as “Sweatin’ to the Oldies,” that sold over 20 million copies.
He grew up as an “unhappy, bewildered teenager”
Born Milton Teagle Richard Simmons, in New Orleans, he described himself as a compulsive eater as a young boy. Others bullied and made fun of him because of his weight.
“I grew up without any physical education,” he remembered on NPR’s Tell Me More in 2008. “I was 200 pounds in the eighth grade. And when I graduated high school I was almost 300 pounds. I was a very … unhappy, bewildered teenager who couldn’t figure out what I wanted in life and why I had such a strong relationship with food.”
Simmons said on his website that he tried diets and laxatives, but eventually adopted “a lifestyle of balance, moderate eating and exercise.” His life’s work became making exercise fun — for all types of bodies.
In 1974, Simmons opened his own studio in Beverly Hills that catered to people who wanted to lose weight and get in shape. It was originally called The Anatomy Asylum, but was later known as SLIMMONS. It even featured one of the first salad bars in the area, called “Ruffage.” Simmons continued to be a presence there until 2013.
Simmons’ workout style was upbeat and welcoming. In a commercial for one of his popular “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” videos, he enthused, “If you’re looking for a lively, entertaining, stimulating, humorous, colorful, frolicking, playful, inspiring, safe, low-impact workout that’s full of kicks, thrills, gusto, fervor, passion, fury, bustle and action you don’t have to look any further. This is it!”
No other fitness celebrity looked like Richard Simmons. And no one else in exercise videos of the era looked like the people in his classes, according to historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela. “They were all ages, they were men and women. Most notably, a lot would have been considered overweight by standards at the time.”
Petrzela, who wrote the book, Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession, says it was revolutionary to welcome fat people into fitness during the 1970s and ’80s. More recently, though, Petrzela says Simmons has been criticized for fat-shaming.
“That criticism is not misplaced,” she says. “But I also think it’s so important to see the way that … the important work that he did in expanding people’s sense of who deserved to exercise, who was welcome at the gym and who was deserving of finding joy through movement and in communities of movement.”
In his 60s, Simmons became a recluse. Many of his fans were baffled as to why this very public and positive person went quiet and didn’t leave his home. The podcast Missing Richard Simmons and a few documentaries delved into the mystery, including one produced by TMZ that appeared on Fox and Hulu. In a 2022 statement, Simmons tersely thanked his fans. Earlier interviews, such as one on the Today show in 2016, alluded to health issues and a desire to spend time alone.
Simmons’ philosophy was simple. He preached positivity, portion control and moving your body for at least 30 minutes every day. That message resonated with people who didn’t see themselves in the traditional world of fitness — and those who felt like the last person picked for the team.
On-air challenge
Every year around this time I present a “new names in the news” quiz. I’m going to give you some names that you’d probably never heard before 2025 but that were prominent in the news during the past 12 months. You tell me who or what they are.
1. Zohran Mamdani
2. Karoline Leavitt
3. Mark Carney
4. Robert Francis Prevost (hint: Chicago)
5. Jeffrey Goldberg (hint: The Atlantic)
6. Sanae Takaichi
7. Nameless raccoon, Hanover County, Virginia
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Think of a two-syllable word in four letters. Add two letters in front and one letter behind to make a one-syllable word in seven letters. What words are these?
Challenge answer
Ague –> Plagued / Plagues / Leagues
Winner
Calvin Siemer of Henderson, Nev.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge is a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago. Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 8 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
Daniel Tosh
Sells Lake Tahoe Home for Millions
Published
Daniel Tosh has officially sold his sprawling Lake Tahoe compound but the comedian isn’t leaving the area … TMZ has learned.
Real estate sources tell us the 7-bedroom, 7-bath estate officially closed Friday for $10.75 million, and Tosh bought another property across the lake to be closer to friends, which is why he decided to sell.
The gated estate, located on the pristine west shore between Tahoe City and Sunnyside, sprawls across 1.6 acres and features three distinct homes, each with its own character and charm.
The Upper House is the ultimate entertainer’s dream … 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, elevator, game room, industrial ice cream maker, 4-car garage, hot tub, fire pit, bocce and horseshoe pits, and sprawling lawns with breathtaking lake views.
The Middle House keeps classic Tahoe charm alive with knotty pine interiors, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a stone fireplace, skylit kitchen, and steam shower — perfect for unwinding after a day on the lake.
The lakeside cabin is a serene retreat with a studio loft, retro kitchenette, modern bathroom, and French doors opening right onto the lake.
Altogether, the property boasts 93 feet of lake frontage, two buoys, and multiple outdoor spaces for fun and relaxation.
Daniel may be moving, but one thing’s clear … he’s still very much a Lake Tahoe guy, just on the other side of the lake now.
Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield.
Netflix
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Netflix
Yes, there are spoilers ahead for the final episode of Stranger Things.
On New Year’s Eve, the very popular Netflix show Stranger Things came to an end after five seasons and almost 10 years. With actors who started as tweens now in their 20s, it was probably inevitable that the tale of a bunch of kids who fought monsters would wind down. In the two-plus-hour finale, there was a lot of preparation, then there was a final battle, and then there was a roughly 40-minute epilogue catching up with our heroes 18 months later. And how well did it all work? Let’s talk about it.
Worked: The final battle
The strongest part of the finale was the battle itself, set in the Abyss, in which the crew battled Vecna, who was inside the Mind Flayer, which is, roughly speaking, a giant spider. This meant that inside, Eleven could go one-on-one with Vecna (also known as Henry, or One, or Mr. Whatsit) while outside, her friends used their flamethrowers and guns and flares and slingshots and whatnot to take down the Mind Flayer. (You could tell that Nancy was going to be the badass of the fight as soon as you saw not only her big gun, but also her hair, which strongly evoked Ripley in the Alien movies.) And of course, Joyce took off Vecna’s head with an axe while everybody remembered all the people Vecna has killed who they cared about. Pretty good fight!
Did not work: Too much talking before the fight
As the group prepared to fight Vecna, we watched one scene where the music swelled as Hopper poured out his feelings to Eleven about how she deserved to live and shouldn’t sacrifice herself. Roughly 15 minutes later, the music swelled for a very similarly blocked and shot scene in which Eleven poured out her feelings to Hopper about why she wanted to sacrifice herself. Generally, two monologues are less interesting than a conversation would be. Elsewhere, Jonathan and Steve had a talk that didn’t add much, and Will and Mike had a talk that didn’t add much (after Will’s coming-out scene in the previous episode), both while preparing to fight a giant monster. It’s not that there’s a right or wrong length for a finale like this, but telling us things we already know tends to slow down the action for no reason. Not every dynamic needed a button on it.
Worked: Dungeons & Dragons bringing the group together
It was perhaps inevitable that we would end with a game of D&D, just as we began. But now, these kids are feeling the distance between who they are now and who they were when they used to play together. The fact that they still enjoy each other’s company so much, even when there are no world-shattering stakes, is what makes them seem the most at peace, more than a celebratory graduation. And passing the game off to Holly and her friends, including the now-included Derek, was a very nice touch.
Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers, Natalia Dyer as Nancy Wheeler, Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley, and Joe Keery as Steve Harrington.
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Netflix
Did not work: Dr. Kay, played by Linda Hamilton
It seemed very exciting that Stranger Things was going to have Linda Hamilton, actual ’80s action icon, on hand this season playing Dr. Kay, the evil military scientist who wanted to capture and kill Eleven at any cost. But she got very little to do, and the resolution to her story was baffling. After the final battle, after the Upside Down is destroyed, she believes Eleven to be dead. But … then what happened? She let them all call taxis home, including Hopper, who killed a whole bunch of soldiers? Including all the kids who now know all about her and everything she did? All the kids who ventured into the Abyss are going to be left alone? Perfect logic is certainly not anybody’s expectation, but when you end a sequence with your entire group of heroes at the mercy of a band of violent goons, it would be nice to say something about how they ended up not at the mercy of said goons.
Worked: Needle drops
Listen, it’s not easy to get one Prince song for your show, let alone two: “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry.” When the Duffer Brothers say they needed something epic, and these songs feel epic, they are not wrong. There continues to be a heft to the Purple Rain album that helps to lend some heft to a story like this, particularly given the period setting. “Landslide” was a little cheesy as the lead-in to the epilogue, but … the epilogue was honestly pretty cheesy, so perhaps that’s appropriate.
Did not work: The non-ending
As to whether Eleven really died or is really just backpacking in a foreign country where no one can find her, the Duffer Brothers, who created the show, have been very clear that the ending is left up to you. You can think she’s dead, or you can think she’s alive; they have intentionally not given the answer. It’s possible to write ambiguous endings that work really well, but this one felt like a cop-out, an attempt to have it both ways. There’s also a real danger in expanding characters’ supernatural powers to the point where they can make anything seem like anything, so maybe much of what you saw never happened. After all, if you don’t know that did happen, how much else might not have happened?
This piece also appears in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.
Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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