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| Greg Giraldo dies at 44 |
Giraldo died Wednesday at a New Jersey hospital, where he had been since Saturday night, after being discovered unconscious in a hotel room in New Brunswick, N.J. No cause of death was announced.
On the weekend, U.S. media reported Greg Giraldo had been hospitalized after an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. The comedian was discovered in his hotel room after he failed to show up for a gig at a nearby club Saturday.
"The tragic news of Greg's passing hits us very, very hard," U.S. cable network Comedy Central said in a statement Wednesday. "Greg has been a member of the Comedy Central family for years, injecting his energy and wicked sense of humour into countless projects. "The comedy community lost a brother today. Our thoughts are with his family."
Born in New York in 1965, Greg Giraldo was a graduate of both Columbia University and Harvard, where he earned a law degree. Though he briefly worked at a law firm, he decided to leave to pursue a career in comedy.He earned accolades as his career developed and became a familiar face on Comedy Central for his appearances on a myriad of comedy shows and specials as well as for his ubiquity on the network's celebrity roasts. He was also a regular on the late-night talk shows of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, and turned up on the radio programs of shock jocks Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony.
More recently, in addition to his regular stand-up gigs, he also participated as a judge on the seventh season of NBC reality competition Last Comic Standing and appeared on Jerry Seinfeld's The Marriage Ref.
Despite his reputation as a talented and well-regarded comic, peers often quipped that Giraldo was the comedian no one had heard of. He was also upfront about fighting alcohol abuse and discussed his return to sobriety as well as his occasional slip-up. Greg Giraldo, who was divorced, had three children.
