Richard Simmons Has Been Missing for Two Years, Friends Concerned He’s Being Held Hostage
According to his Wikipedia page, ‘Simmons claims to have few friends, saying, “I don’t have a lot to offer to one person. I have a lot to offer to a lot of people.” Aside from his three Dalmatians and two maids, Simmons lives alone in the Hollywood Hills.’
Sounds like he’s just a recluse.
Maybe he finally ran out of pep.
Huh. Yeah, sounds like he just decided to retire and not make appearances. Or…not.
Really not joking: is it possible for a bipolar person to have been in a manic episode for years, and then crashed, and now is in a two years and counting depression? I mean, peppy Simmons was a little disturbing to me. Maybe it was pathological all along. Of maybe he was taking some kind of medication for depression that induced mania (happens, because a lot of psychiatrists see bipolar patients only when they’re depressed, and diagnose them as depressed, not bipolar), and he’s stopped taking it, for whatever reason
Who knew? Who cares?
Took the words right out of my mouth!
Looks like the people close to him in real life do. If you don’t, then fine, but a missing person is cause for concern to somebody.
The cops did a welfare check on him last year. January 2015
He was fine then. I suspect he’s just decided to retire from public life.
Yes. This is pretty much how it went with the older bipolar people in my family. Super high achievers, then crash, which lasted until death.
I’ve wondered: did they just suddenly develop it in their 40s, 50s, 60s? Because it hit the next generation a whole lot earlier, and in those people there were observable cycles. Or were the people in my parents’ generation just legitimate high-energy extremely competent folks who suddenly got tired and depressed and pretty much stayed that way until they died?
Some of these people were diagnosed manic-depressive (back when) or bipolar, others just diagnosed as depressed.
It’s possible. My now ex-wife was severely bipolar. She went through phases like that when she wasn’t taking her meds. And she hadn’t taken them for years when we first got together. She crashed for a period of about 14 months straight at one time.
I knew, it pops up on TMZ once in a while and I have a few FB friends that like him so I see it there as well. IIRC he broke/injured his knee a while back and couldn’t exercise after that and this, I think, is sort of fall out from that. It seems without his livelihood he kind of fell apart. At least that was the story last year.
Who knew?
Well, I’ve read some version of the claim several times over the past couple years so I guess I did, sorta. I don’t seek out Richard Simmons information, it’s just out there, like this board.
I’m thankful I wasn’t drinking something when I read this.
mmm
Creating the Richard Simmons persona must have been exhausting. He had to always be full of energy, animated, and positive. Not to mention having to wear those short shorts day after day. That had to get harder as he aged. He must have known he was the butt of a lot of jokes. Didn’t SNL have a funny character based on him? I think Will Ferrell played it, but I’m not sure.
Maybe the guy was telling the cops the truth last year. Any way, he hasn’t been missing two years. He was seen by the police a year ago.
I knew. The story has been bouncing around since pretty much after he cut everybody off.
I have an acquaintance who used to regularly attend classes taught by him at his gym and it was a very sudden departure from his routine.
He may very well have decided to retire from public life. Or be in a years log depression but I do hope that welfare check by the police was competently done. Elder abuse (and I know he’s only 66) is a real thing, especially where there is lots of money involved. And often the person appears to be a completely willing participant but is still getting scammed and manipulated.
I hope somebody with sufficient independence has visibility into his finances to be able to tell if anything suspicious is going on.
On the other hand, with the primary whistleblower is invoking Black Magic as an explanation that doesn’t build up credibility either.
When I asked, ‘Who knew?’ I wasn’t asking literally. It was more along the lines of Gatopescado’s post (#5). 
Richard Simmons was ‘big’ back in the '80s and '90s, but my impression is that he’s been out of the public eye for a very long time; so when an article pops up as if it’s ‘news’, it sounds to me as if they’re telling us Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
I remember reading years ago that he spent a lot of time keeping in touch with a lot of people who had contacted him for help, and it sounded like he was very kind and supportive. I can imagine that years of that could be emotionally exhausting. Maybe he just burnt out.
I know you meant it rhetorically. But gathering around to jointly express disinterest in a perceived has been seemed boring.
So I answered anyway.
Wait, what?:eek:
I agree, I think he just got tired of needing to be on all the time. That has got to be mentally exhausting!
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If I had three dogs and two (aherm) “maids” to live with, I’d never go out either.