Fred Willard Received Standing Ovation From Crew After Improvising One Of His Last Ever Scenes
A heartwarming story
Fred Willard, a comedy genius known for his roles on both film and television, sadly passed away of natural causes on May 15th, aged 86.
His daughter Hope confirmed the news on Twitter, stating, "He kept moving, working and making us happy until the very end. We loved him so very much! We will miss him forever."
Willard's last project, Space Force, created by Steve Carell and Greg Daniels, will arrive to Netflix this Friday.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Daniels shared a story about Willard's performance on set, in which the late actor received a standing ovation:
"I had the wonderful experience of being on the set when he did his first work for us in the first episode. We had written something very funny for him, I thought, and he did it brilliantly. And then, he's a legendary improviser, so at the end of it, we said, 'Why don't you just do whatever you want?' And he went into this 5 minute, incredibly funny story about crawling under the house, which, you know, we used completely as-is in the show."
Daniels continued that when he was done, the crew gave him a standing ovation, which he had never seen happen before, adding, "Everybody knew how special the work was that he was doing".
"And he was 86 years old, so people were just so impressed. So if there's any consolation, I guess it was that his work was the highlight of the show."
Daniels called Willard "a comedy legend", sharing that "his work made everyone respect him, and he was a very loveable guy."
Many of Willard's family, friends and fans have taken to Twitter to share their favourite memories of the actor.