Beloved fitness personality Richard Simmons has died

AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:

A beloved face of fitness has died. Richard Simmons died of natural causes on Saturday just a day after he turned 76. Kyle Norris has our remembrance of an exuberant force for low-impact workouts.

KYLE NORRIS, BYLINE: Richard Simmons was instantly recognizable in his short shorts, sparkly tank tops and frizzy hair.

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RICHARD SIMMONS: Inhale, ah, ah. Welcome to the disco. Inhale...

NORRIS: Simmons created a fitness empire that lasted more than four decades with videos, classes, books, products, infomercials, and plenty of TV appearances. And he benefited from a new technology in the 1980s by putting out his classes on VHS cassettes played on VCRs. Here's historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, trying to sum up Simmons in just a few words.

NATALIA MEHLMAN PETRZELA: Flamboyant - razzle-dazzle is what I want to say. I mean, he just, like, sparkled. He really, really did.

NORRIS: Milton Teagle Richard Simmons was born in 1948 in New Orleans. As a young person, he struggled with obesity. People were mean and bullied him because of it, as he said in this documentary on his official YouTube channel.

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SIMMONS: As an overweight kid, I really didn't have anyone to turn to. I had a true compulsion for food. And I couldn't stop it.

NORRIS: Simmons had a long and intimate journey with his body weight. He moved to Los Angeles in 1973, and he tried to find ways to be physically active, but he did not fit in with the muscly workout dudes in the gyms, and women did not want him in their aerobics classes. So he saved money to open up his own studio in Beverly Hills for people who were out of shape and overweight. Simmons' workout style was upbeat, easy, and welcomed people with all types and sizes of bodies.

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SIMMONS: So if you're looking for a lively, entertaining, stimulating, humorous, colorful, frolicking, playful, inspiring, safe, low-impact workout that's full of kicks, thrills, gusto, fervor, passion, fury, bustle, and action, you don't have to look any further. This is it. Three, four - wow.

NORRIS: That's Simmons in a commercial selling one of his popular "Sweatin' To The Oldies" videos. In his lifetime, he made more than 65 fitness videos that sold over 20 million copies. No one else who taught fitness looked like Richard Simmons, and no one else looked like the people in his classes. Here's historian Natalia Mehlman Petrzela.

PETRZELA: They were all ages. They were men and women. Most notably, a lot of them would have been considered overweight by the standards at that time.

NORRIS: She says, it was a big deal to welcome fat people into fitness and treat them like human beings. Although Petrzela says these days, Simmons has been criticized for fat shaming.

PETRZELA: And I think that that criticism is not misplaced, but I also think it's so important to see the way that the important work that he did in expanding people's sense of who deserved to exercise, who was welcome at the gym and who was deserving finding joy through movement and in communities of movement.

NORRIS: In his 60s, Simmons became a recluse and did not leave his home. There was even a podcast and several documentaries made to figure out why this very public and positive person went quiet. Simmons said he was dealing with knee problems and wanted to spend some time alone. He has said his life's mission was to make people laugh and help people. And the formula he used was simple - have a positive attitude, control your food portions, and move every single day for at least 30 minutes. For NPR News, I'm Kyle Norris.

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SIMMONS: One, two, three, four - party time. It's party time. Come on, Kim (ph). Come on, Erin (ph) (laughter). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.