Gay stand up comedian Kevin Meaney dies age 60
Veteran comedian and actor Kevin Meaney has died age 60 at his home in New York.
The gay stand up died on Friday, but his cause of death has not yet been determined.
Meaney’s former wife, Mary Ann Halford confirmed his death.
Began his career on the comedy circuit in the early 1980’s and went on to star in an array of comedy programmes.
Meaney has worked on The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, The Late Show and Late Night and starred in BIG alongside Tom Hanks.
He has also guess starred in TV comedy series including 2 Broke Girls, Coast to Coast and 30 Rock.
He performed on Broadway in the musical Hairspray, a role he accredits as life changing and causing a period of self reflection where he realised he was gay.
The veteran comic came out in 2008 in an interview with XM Radio.
NewNowNext reports that he said: “I got a job doing the gayest musical of all time, Hairspray, and everybody in the crew and everyone in the audience, they were all gay. So it just gave me courage.”
“People say, “Does Broadway make you gay?” Yes it does. Even going to a show you can become gay so you have to be careful.”
Meaney was married twice, First when he was 39-years-old and married a woman in Las Vegas which was later annulled. He then married television executive Mary Ann Halford and they had one daughter.
After Meaney came out as gay, he brought his sexual orientation into some of his stand-up routines.
Friends and family of the actor have taken to Twitter to share memories of him:
