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gary emmanuel chandling was born on
november 29 1949 in chicago illinois his
parents were irving and muriel shandling
who were jewish his older brother barry
had cystic fibrosis so the family moved
to tucson arizona for barry's treatments
sadly barry died when gary was 10 years
old
gary shandling attended palo verde high
school and later the university of
arizona where he initially studied
engineering but earned a degree in
marketing and pursued a year in
post-graduate studies in creative
writing
when chandling was 19 he showed some
jokes to george carlin who was
performing in phoenix carlin told him
that he had funny stuff on every page
and should keep at it
in 1973 gary moved to los angeles and
eventually wrote and sold a script for
the nbc sitcom sanford and son
he also wrote scripts for the sitcom
welcome back cotter
in 1977 chandling was involved in a car
crash in beverly hills that left him in
critical condition for two days and
hospitalized him for two weeks with a
crushed spleen
gary later said
i had a vivid near-death experience that
involved a voice asking do you want to
continue leading gary chandling's life
without thinking i said yes
since then i've been stuck in the
physical world while knowing without a
doubt that there's something much more
meaningful within it all that
realization is what drives my life and
work
in 1978 shanley performed his first
stand-up act at the comedy store in los
angeles
in 1981 he appeared on the tonight show
starring johnny carson chandling
substituted for carson on a regular
basis until 1987 when he left to work on
his own cable show in the 1980s gary did
two comedy specials on showtime and in
1991 he did a special for hbo
in 1985 chandling and allen zweibell
created its gary shandling show which
ran through 1990 the series broke the
fourth wall acknowledging that
characters knew they were in a tv show
in a style similar to the george burns
and gracie allen show the series was
nominated for four emmy awards
in 1992 chandling starred in the talk
show sitcom the larry sanders show which
ran for 89 episodes through 1998 on hbo
it garnered 56 emmy award nominations
and three wins
shandling based the series on his
experiences guests hosting the tonight
show in 1993 nbc offered channeling 5
million dollars to take over late night
when david letterman announced his
highly publicized move to cbs but he
turned it down
gary hosted saturday night live in 1987
and he hosted the grammy award several
times as well as the emmy awards in 2000
and 2004. he also appeared in episodes
of the x-files caroline in the city and
the ben stiller show
he occasionally appeared in films he
wrote and starred in mike nichols what
planet are you from in 2000 and
co-starred with warren beatty in town
and country as well as a brief cameo in
zoolander in 2001 gary was also an iron
man 2 in 2010 among others
shandling was a long time friend of
jerry seinfeld in january 2016 he
appeared on seinfeld show comedians and
cars getting coffee one of his last
appearances
gary shared an apartment with his
fiancee actress linda doucette from 1987
until they split up in 1994.
shannon was never married and didn't
have any children gary was also very
interested in zen buddhism
chandling suffered from
hyperparathyroidism a condition that is
seldom dangerous and is usually
addressed without treatment
unfortunately on march 24 2016
gary shandling suddenly collapsed in his
home and was rushed to st john's health
center hospital in santa monica
california where sadly he died of a
pulmonary embolism
he was only 66 years old
he was cremated and his ashes were given
to her friend
shandling had no relatives so he left
some of his estate to his lawyer and
best friend bill isaacson
the bulk of his wealth was held in a
private trust he had created
on february 4 2019 his estate bestowed
15.2 million dollars to benefit medical
research at the david geffen school of
medicine at ucla