 ABC's Chris Connolly. Fitness icon Richard Simmons died. He helped millions shed weight with encouragement and excitement, telling ABC in 1993, I'm like the clown on the block. I'm the exercise person out there that tries to make it fun. If you look at all the other videos, they're exceedingly serious. And there's all these other millions of people that can't relate to this woman that weighs 105 pounds. Richard Simmons was 76.