Garry Shandling

Actor, comedian, and writer Garry Shandling was the mastermind behind "The Larry Sanders Show" (HBO 1992-98) and "It's Garry Shandling's Show" (Showtime, 1986-90) -groundbreaking, critically-acclaimed cable comedies that parodied the conventions and culture of television. In both series, art imitated life, with the actor portraying an insecure, self-obsessed loser in love who was the butt of his own jokes. Off-screen, his persona was much the same, whether he was performing stand-up or hosting "The Tonight Show." Shandling made several feature film appearances following the wrap of "Sanders" in 1998, but he remained fairly low profile, taking a break from his love/hate relationship with Hollywood, only to surface with eight hours of unusually personal documentary footage for the release of the DVD set "Not Just the Best of Larry Sanders" (2007). Garry Shandling died on March 24, 2016 at the age of 66.