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Louie Anderson, longtime comic and game show host who won an Emmy for his supporting role as Christine Baskets in the FX series “Baskets,” has died at age 68.
He passed in Las Vegas following after undergoing treatment for diffuse large B cell lymphoma. His publicist confirmed his death to Deadline Friday.
Perhaps best known for his brilliant, subversive turn in the 1988 comedy “Coming to America,” he scored the role as the sole white person in the groundbreaking comedy. Anderson chalked it up to his nice-guy Midwestern roots.
His role as Maurice — the seemingly mild-mannered McDowell’s clerk — produced one of the most iconic soliloquies in comedy. “Hey, I started out mopping the floor just like you guys. But now … now I’m washing lettuce,” said Anderson’s sad-sack Maurice with withering underdog determination. “Soon I’ll be on fries; then the grill. In a year or two, I’ll make assistant manager, and that’s when the big bucks start rolling in.”