Los Angeles -- Richard Dimitri, the character actor and comedian best known for playing a pair of twins in Mel Brooks's 1970s television spoof When Things Were Rotten and for memorable supporting turns in films such as Johnny Dangerously and Let It Ride, has died. He was 83. According to his family and reports, Dimitri died on 18 December 2025, in Los Angeles after a decades-long battle with heart and lung illness.

A New Yorker of Assyrian descent, Dimitri was born in Yonkers on 27 June 1942, the youngest of two sons. He was the second child of Mary Eshoo (Joseph) and Jacob Manuel. When Richard was a toddler, his father abandoned the family. He was brought up by his mother and maternal grandfather, with his mother facing significant hardship in supporting her children. "She tried the best she could," Richard would later say. "I never did not feel her love for me." He went on to attend Yonkers High School and subsequently enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1962.

He began his career on the stage, appearing off-Broadway in the early 1960s and later on Broadway in productions including Zorba and Lysistrata. He taught acting at Queens College in 1973 before moving to Los Angeles to pursue television and film work.

Richard had a tenor voice suited for opera. While on vacation in Salzburg, Austria, he had an opportunity to audition for a representative of the Vienna State Opera. The representative indicated that with additional training, he could have a future as an opera singer. This left him with a difficult decision. Although he was passionate about opera, he ultimately chose to focus on his acting career instead.

Dimitri first came to many viewers' attention on television in 1975, when he played the twins Bertram (an aide to the Sheriff of Nottingham) and Renaldo (one of the Merry Men) on Brooks's short-lived ABC series When Things Were Rotten. Though the show ran for just 13 episodes, it showcased the kind of broad, physical comedy and character work that would mark much of Dimitri's screen career. He moved fluidly between television guest spots -- including appearances on Starsky & Hutch, Welcome Back, Kotter, and Hawaii Five-O -- and film roles, bringing a comic sharpness to small but vivid parts.

On the big screen he is perhaps best remembered for Amy Heckerling's 1984 gangster spoof Johnny Dangerously, in which he played Roman Moronie, a nightclub owner prone to hilarious malapropism. He later appeared as the gambler Johnny Cheeseburger in the 1989 comedy Let It Ride. He also worked with comic talents such as Gene Wilder on The World's Greatest Lover and stayed active in television comedy both in front of and behind the camera. Dimitri co-created the 1993 Fox sitcom Daddy Dearest, which starred Richard Lewis and Don Rickles, and amassed writing credits on series including CBS's House Calls and NBC's family comedy Going Bananas.

After health problems forced him to step away from show business in 1998, he began a second career as an art and antiques dealer with his wife, Christianne Engs, operating Engs-Dimitri Works of Art on Los Angeles's La Cienega Boulevard.

Dimitri's personal life was marked by both devotion and heartbreak. He had been married to Christianne Engs for 26 years. His eldest son, John, was born with a rare congenital heart defect, hypoplastic left-heart syndrome, and died at 19 in 2017. The family has continued to support research into congenital heart disease in his memory through The John Dimitri Research Foundation for Congenital Heart Disease.

Colleagues and fans remembered Dimitri as a character actor's character actor. Someone who could turn a small role into an unforgettable comic moment and who carried a deep grounding in theater and craft. His eclectic career -- spanning Broadway, television, film, stand-up and the art world -- left a quiet but distinct imprint on several generations of performers and audiences.