Biography for
Richard Jeni More at IMDb Pro »

Date of Birth

14 April 1957, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Date of Death

10 March 2007, West Hollywood, California, USA (suicide by gunshot)

Birth Name

Richard John Colangelo

Trivia

Grew up in Bensonhurst, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York

Graduated from NYC's Hunter College (a B.A. in political science, with honors)

Close friend of Paul Rodriguez.

First achieved national attention with his Showtime special "Richard Jeni:" Boy from New York City".

Following his death, his family later confirmed that Jeni committed suicide, and that Jeni had recently been diagnosed with "severe clinical depression coupled with bouts of insomnia and psychotic paranoia.

Was a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. Leno attended his private wake at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, along with comedians Tim Allen, Richard Lewis, Elayne Boosler, Paul Provenza and close friend Paul Rodriguez.

In 2004, Jeni was ranked #57 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest standups of all time; he served on the panel responsible for this ranking.

Gave his final performance in February of 2007, at a corporate dinner gig at the Rio in Las Vegas.

Jeni's girlfriend of three years, Amy Murphy, a television reporter and former WSVN-Fox 7 weather anchor, found him gravely shot in his West Hollywood apartment and called "911". He died later at Ceder-Sinai Hospital.

Personal Quotes

My mother never saw the irony of calling me a son of a bitch.

Imagine my surprise when it turned out the main thing that I was qualified for was to get another degree and teach Political Science to other people, who would, in turn, teach it to other people! This wasn't higher education, this was Amway with a football team! --On his college degree

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