Richard Simmons: Never Letting Perfect Be an Enemy of Good

Richard Simmons died last week at the age of 76 after a lifetime of making people smile and never letting the perfect be an enemy of the good.

Fat Youth with Curly Hair

Simmons had a distinctive body image from an early age. He was a heavy child at the age of four and knew that people were judging him by the time he was five.

“I knew what people were saying. The worst part was not being accepted by my peers. That’s why I’ve never lived in the visual world. I live very much in an emotional-contact world.”

He went to Italy as a foreign exchange student, studying art and finding parts in commercials as well as Fellini Satyricon. Describing that experience he said:

“I was fat, had curly hair. The Italians thought I was hysterical. I was the life of the party.”

But, of course, he was being typecast and certainly regarded as less than perfect. A cowardly concern-trolling note spooked him into starving himself and losing his curly hair in the process. Left for him in his car, it said:

“Dear Richard, you’re very funny, but fat people die young. Please don’t die.”

Authentic Acceptance

After that low point, he found a more authentic voice of acceptance for himself. He was relentlessly bright and encouraging to people who did not fit into a fitness culture of thin, perfect bodies. He told the world:

“I’m not a phony playing a character on Happy Days. I’m a person with faults and insecurities evident every day. What you see is what you get.”

“There’ll always be some weird thing about eating four grapes before you go to bed, or drinking a special tea, or buying this little bean from El Salvador. If you watch your portions and you have a good attitude and you work out every day you’ll live longer, feel better and look terrific.”

He was not selling impossible aspirations for physical perfection. Instead, Richard Simmons helped people feel good about and take care of themselves. This was the work of his emotional labor for which many people are grateful. Simmons was a genuine counter-cultural icon.

Click here, and here, and here for more on the life and work of Richard Simmons.

Richard Simmons, publicity photo by Bonnie Schiffman / Wikimedia Commons

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July 21, 2024