Richard Lewis, Diagnosed With Parkinson’s, Will Retire From Stand-Up Comedy

The comedian Richard Lewis is retiring from stand-up after having privately dealt with Parkinson’s disease, which he was diagnosed with two years ago, he said in a video posted on Twitter.

Mr. Lewis, 75, said that he was diagnosed after he noticed stiffness in his walking and that he was shuffling his feet. Parkinson’s disease is an incurable disorder that affects the part of the brain that controls movement.

“The last three and a half years, I’ve had sort of a rocky time, and people say, ‘You know, I haven’t heard from you, are you still touring?’” he said in a video post Sunday night to his nearly 240,000 Twitter followers. He described his diagnosis and said: “I’m finished with stand-up. I’m just focused on writing and acting.”

Mr. Lewis, who recently finished filming Season 12 of the HBO hit show “Curb Your Enthusiasm” with the comedian Larry David, said that he was lucky he did not get Parkinson’s disease until late in life and that the disease had progressed slowly, if at all.

In addition to the Parkinson’s diagnosis, he has had four surgeries on his shoulder, back and hip in the past few years. “It was bad luck, but it’s life,” he said.

Born in Brooklyn in 1947, Mr. Lewis started performing his own stand-up routines in 1971 at New York’s Improvisation and Pips, according to IMDB, the entertainment website. After appearing on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in 1974, he had a four-year run on the hit ABC series “Anything but Love,” co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Comedy Central included Mr. Lewis in the top 50 of its list of the top 100 comedians of all time.

Mr. Lewis has also had a number of film roles, including as Prince John in the 1993 adventure comedy film “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” In his memoir, “The Other Great Depression,” he described his recovery from addiction and finding spirituality.

Mr. Lewis, who has performed on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” since its debut in 2000, has known Mr. David since they met at summer camp at age 12, Mr. Lewis said in a 2010 interview with Howard Stern.

“Hated him, never saw him again until I became a comic, became best friends,” he said. “When I became a comic, he loved my work, and I loved his work.”