Bob Saget, the veteran comedian and actor known for his role in Full House, has died at the age of 65.
TMZ reports that Saget was found dead on Sunday (January 9th) inside of his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida.
According to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, Saget “was pronounced deceased on scene. Detectives found no signs of foul play or drug use in this case.”
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Prior to his passing, Saget had been on a standup tour in Florida, which included a show in Jacksonville on Saturday night. In a Tweet posted early Sunday morning, Saget commented on his most recent performance, writing, “Loved tonight’s show @PV_ConcertHall in Jacksonville. Appreciative audience… I had no idea I did a 2 hr set tonight. I’m happily addicted again to this shit. Check http://BobSaget.com for my dates in 2022.”
For many children of the 80s and 90s, Bob Saget will forever be remembered as “America’s Dad,” thanks to his role as Danny Tanner on the hit ABC sitcom Full House. For eight seasons between 1987 and 1995, Saget starred as Tanner family patriarch, a single father of three daughters who resided in a San Francisco home alongside his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (played by John Stamos) and best friend Joey Gladstone (played by Dave Coulier). Candace Cameron and Jodie Sweetin played Tanner’s teenage daughters, D.J. and Stephanie, while Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen pulled double duty as youngest sister Michelle. At its peak, Full House drew an audience of over 17 million viewers and ranked in the top 10 of most watched television shows. Many of the Full House cast members, including Saget, later reprised their roles in the Netflix spin-off series, Fuller House.
Amid his run on Full House, Saget was tapped by ABC to host its audience-submitted video clip series, America’s Funniest Home Videos. Initially envisioned as a one-off special, AFHV became an unexpected hit for the network, drawing tens of millions of viewers each week. Saget hosted the series for eight seasons, totaling nearly 200 episodes.
In 1998, Saget directed his first feature film, Dirty Work, which starred fellow comics Norm Macdonald and Artie Lange. Three years later in 2001, Saget was cast in The WB sitcom Raising Dad alongside future Hollywood stars Brie Larson and Kat Dennings. The show was canceled after just one season.
Beginning in 2005, Saget served as the narrator on the hit CBS sitcom How I Met You Mother. He also had a reoccurring role on the HBO series Entourage, playing a parody role of himself.
In stark contrast to his family friendly work on television, Saget was a notoriously foul-mouthed comedian. “Bob Saget is the dirtiest comic who’s ever lived. Nobody touches him,” Penn Jillette previously proclaimed of Saget. “Anyone in show business knows how dirty he is, but the general public doesn’t. The fact that he’s so clean-cut and the fact that he enjoys the dirty stuff so much is part of the brilliance of the character he put together.”
This was no more evident than in Jillette’s 2005 documentary The Aristocrats, in which 100 comedians told different variations on the same dirty joke. Saget famously delivered a scene-stealing performance, which to this day remains the stuff of legends in comedy circles. It’s also how he would likely most wanted to be remembered.