Pauly Shore has paid tribute to Richard Simmons, the energetic, frizzy-haired TV personality and fitness coach, who died Saturday at age 76.
Shore, the comedian and actor who is starring in an unauthorized biopic about the late fitness legend, took to Instagram to write, “I just got word like everyone else that the beautiful Richard Simmons has passed. I hope you’re at peace and twinkling up in the heavens. Please give my mother Mitzi and my father Sammy a big hug and a kiss for me.”
He continued, “You’re one of a kind, Richard. An amazing life. An amazing story. They broke the dolphin shorts when they made you. Rest in peace, my friend. Rest in peace.”
News of a Richard Simmons biopic starring Shore broke in January of this year; the feature is still in the works from The Wolper Organization, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Casting. Soon after the announcement, Simmons took to Facebook to express his disapproval.
“You may have heard they may be doing a movie about me with Pauly Shore. I have never given my permission for this movie. So don’t believe everything you read,” Simmons wrote. “I no longer have a manager, and I no longer have a publicist. I just try to live a quiet life and be peaceful.”
Shore also worked on “The Court Jester,” a separate short film about Simmons, which was written and directed by Jordan Allen-Dutton.
At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Shore told Variety the short was “all about love,” even if it didn’t have Simmons’ blessing. “My come from has always been love. …It’s never been vindictive. I’m not Borat. I’m not ‘let’s make fun of someone.’ It’s the opposite.”