Where there was a Willard, there was a way to find new laughs.
That’s an ideal way to sum up the unpredictable delight that was Fred Willard.
(More celebrities pay tribute to the stars we lost in 2020over here.)
Credit: ABC/ADAM TAYLOR
you’ve got the option to see Christopher Guest ducking to laugh.
I’ve heard that Christopher Guest is legendary for not breaking.
And like most people, I started to notice Fred through Christopher Guest’s films.
Isabella Vosmikova/FOX
He wasn’t just somebody who came by that naturally; he was a super hard worker.
I learned a ton from him.
You always want to be spontaneous.
Richard Cartwright/ABC via Getty Images
That really all came from Fred.
Then I got to work with him onModern Familyfor all that time.
He was just a completely low-maintenance person and somebody who off-screen was really kind and funny.
Richard Cartwright/ABC via Getty Images
Fred didn’t create an earnest oblivious characterthat has existed for foreverbut he perfected it, in my opinion.
His characters were all still capable.
And that’s really where Fred did something miraculous.
We would get the scene down, and he was always just incredibly funny in all those takes.
And they were always so good.
The percentage of high-quality material was always so high.
And it was so thrilling.
He would always catch you by surprise.
I really tried to emulate that.
I am incredibly grateful that I had the chanceto say farewell to him on screenand offduring the final season.
There are so few people we really get to say goodbye to.
The writers really did a good job of making it poignant without it being too saccharine.
I fumbled over it for a while.
He was very quiet and took it all in and just said, ‘Thanks.’
And that was it.
And then he said, ‘I’ll see you on the next one.’
That’s the way he always thought.
He said it with a wink, and he knew that that wasn’t the case.
And my stumbling was my version of ‘I love you, Fred.’
I love him, and I miss him."
