Richard's cause of death was pancreatic cancer, and he received his first cancer diagnosis in 1993.
“I had young kids, a great marriage, and a career that was cooking along. Suddenly I'm looking at how quickly this could all end. If I die, what's going to happen to my family?” he confided to People in 2000 about the scary experience.
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At that time, the star had been diagnosed with breast cancer. As he said at the time, “Plus there was the whole idea of me having breast cancer. Testicular cancer, prostate cancer like most guys get — I could understand that. But breast cancer?”
He later became an outspoken voice for men around his diagnosis, channeling Shaft when he proclaimed, "I'm not embarrassed. Breast cancer is unusual in men, yes, but you have to be a man to get through this — damn right.”
