It’s not easy to stand out in a city like New Orleans – one which has been filled with colorful characters since its founding more than 300 years ago. Nevertheless, fitness guru Milton Teagle Simmons – better known as Richard, the Crown Prince of Fitness – did stand out as one of the city’s most worshiped media celebrities. Born on July 12, 1948 in the Crescent City, Simmons passed away 76 years and one day later on July 13, 2024.
Sensitive to being overweight as a child, Simmons embarked on a fitness regime like no other which led to a star-studded career as a celebrity instructor with an audience eager to make life-long change in their bodies. Simmons opened the Slimmons gym in Beverly Hills during the phenomenal growth of aerobics and exercise classes and earned an estimated $20 Million from the sale of fitness tapes like his 1980’s “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” series and 12 memorable books including the groundbreaking “Never Say Diet” in 1980. Simmons was a highly sought after television personality who could be seen on the “Rosie O’Donnell Show” and “Late Night With David Letterman.” Audiences also loved him on “The Larry Sanders Show,” and “Arrested Development” as well as in his regular soap opera gig on “General Hospital.” In addition, “The Richard Simmons Show, which aired from 1980 to 1984 won four Daytime Emmy Awards.
Simmons taught his last fitness class in November 2016 and became a recluse. He made no further public appearances. In March 2024 Simmons posted on Facebook that “we should embrace every day we have.” He urged his more than 400,000 Facebook followers to “Get up in the morning and look at the sky…count your blessings and enjoy.” Simmons also suggested that a Tim McGraw song “Live Like You Were Dying” was worth a listen.
In a statement on Instagram after his death, Jane Fonda wrote that Richard would go out of his way to make people happy. “I often wondered if maybe nobody had made him happy when he was a little boy,” she said.
Richard Simmons, the fat kid who was probably shamed for his weight, taught us all about self-love. And for that we will always love him.
