Richard Simmons had one final message for his fans before his death at 76.
“Richard worked very hard on his posts for you. He had many ideas and would work ahead … going back to each one making changes until he had it just like he wanted before posting,” his staff wrote via Facebook on Saturday, July 21. “As you know, on the weekends, he would just share a photo with a caption. He always chose his photos and wrote his captions for the upcoming weekend by Friday.”
According to Simmons’ team members, they thought fans would “want to see” the upload the fitness icon planned to share on July 14.
For his planned post last Sunday, Simmons intended to share a portrait of himself wearing an astronaut uniform in front of a photoshopped intergalactic backdrop.
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“Let me fly you to the moon so we can gaze among the stars,” he intended to write, quoting the Frank Sinatra song. The message was signed, “Love, Richard.”
Simmons did not get to post the upload as anticipated as he died one day earlier on July 13. According to his reps at the time, Simmons was found dead inside his Los Angeles house that morning.
A cause of death has not been confirmed and an investigation is ongoing. Local law enforcement authorities, however, do not believe that foul play was involved.
Simmons died shortly after he turned 76, a milestone he marked on social media.
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“So many of you have sent me birthday wishes on my Facebook and other platforms,” he wrote on Facebook at the time. “I really appreciate that. I don’t know when your birthday is but I wish you a happy and healthy birthday!”
Prior to his death, the reclusive star had been diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma.
“There was this strange-looking bump under my right eye. I had a tube of neosporin which I would put on in the morning and the evening … it was still there. It was time to call my dermatologist,” he recalled in a March social media message. “I sat in his chair and he looked at it through a magnifying mirror. He told me he would have to scrape it and put it under the microscope. Now I am getting a little bit nervous.”
Simmons’ dermatologist then confirmed the fitness trainer’s diagnosis.
“I asked him what kind of cancer and he said Basal Cell Carcinoma. I told him to stop calling me dirty names. He laughed,” Simmons joked. “‘You have to go to a cancer doctor right away. But now that you are here I suggest you put some Botox in your forehead lines and your smile lines and let’s pump up those cheeks of yours.’ I patted him on his hand and said, ‘Not today doctor.’”
Simmons eventually underwent multiple procedures to remove the cancerous tissue.
