“She lost her life to scleroderma when she was 47. “Today would have been my sister Gay’s 75th birthday,” Saget wrote for an Instagram post shared by SRF and seen below. Many have said they were touched by his tireless commitment on behalf of his sister, who would have celebrated a milestone birthday on Sunday, the day he died.
That’s why they were willing to do something for him,” says Evnin, who adds, “I count myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Bob on something that was deeply meaningful to us and something we felt was going to be our legacy.” Bob was that kind of person - he would do anything for others, and they knew that about him. “Bob was always flying to some city in the middle of the country to support another comedian’s efforts in whatever they were focused on. That speaks to two things: his charisma and his willingness to go the extra mile for this disease.” He said that Saget also returned favors. “Bob was always able to lean on his friends in the comedian community and the music community to come out for him. Walker/Getty ImagesĮvnin suggested that Saget rarely had to beg for RSVPs. Left to right: Luke Evnin, Jim Gaffigan, Ashley Olsen, Bog Saget, John Oliver, Sherri Shepherd, chef Susan Feniger, Jeff Ross and John Stamos in 2013. It was just a joyous, joyous film shoot, and everybody remained very close from it.” We would ride up to the edge of melodrama, and then there would be some joke that would break the tension. That combination makes for great drama, and it’s great filmmaking.
His whole life was like that because he lost so many people in his family early on. “He has such a fine sense of that balance between comedy and tragedy. He’s actually one of my favorite directors I’ve ever worked with,” says Delany, who herself served the SRF board for the better part of two decades. Despite the heavy subject matter, Delany tells THR that Saget made the experience unforgettable. It stars Dana Delany, Polly Bergen and Harold Gould, among others, and was inspired by Gay’s battle with scleroderma and how she and the family coped.
HOW DID GAY SAGET DIED MOVIE
An early and high-profile example of that is For Hope, the 1996 TV movie Saget directed from a script he co-wrote with Susan Rice. This makes a concise definition - and diagnosis - difficult.” It is more prevalent in women and often surfaces between the ages of 30 and 50.Īfter seeing firsthand what his sister went through, Saget made it a mission to use his platform to generate awareness while also raising funds for research and a cure. The disease might progress quickly or slowly. Some are affected early with aggressive changes while others have milder symptoms. Per SRF, scleroderma is best thought of as a single disease, though “it is a complex disease that can progress in very variable ways in individual patients. Many other patients have faced similar hurdles. Bob felt that the treatments she received didn’t make any difference, and he was horrified by all of it. She was misdiagnosed for most of the time she was sick and then, very late into the progression, they decided it was scleroderma. “To hear Bob tell the story,” Evnin explains, “Gay’s trajectory through the medical system was not a particularly positive one. And while Saget is being praised as a gifted comedian (who never shied from a dirty joke), a loving family man (to three daughters), the kindest of colleagues (generous with time and advice), his work for SRF in search of a scleroderma cure is never far behind.īy all accounts, Gay’s battle with scleroderma was brutal.
HOW DID GAY SAGET DIED FULL
Tributes are pouring in from far and wide, posted by Hollywood friends and collaborators and by countless fans that enjoyed his work on everything from Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos to the stand-up stage. It’s an emotion shared by so many over the past 24 hours. “To see such a relatively young man, so vibrant and with such a huge heart, leave now right in the middle of the power of what he could do … I don’t have words for it.
“I still feel like I will wake up tomorrow and Bob will be there,” explains Evnin, who, in his day job, is a well-known venture capital investor serving as managing director and co-founder of MPM Capital. The fact that Saget, who died yesterday in Florida at age 65, won’t be around for either a cure or for that celebratory conversation is something Evnin can’t fathom.