In 2000, comedian and Las Vegas regular Robert Schimmel was at the top of his profession. He'd built a career on the stand-up circuit in the early eighties, and his breakthrough came with an appearance on Rodney Dangerfield's Young Comedian Special on HBO. Later he became a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Howard Stern Show.

Then he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. His book Cancer on $5 a Day* *(chemo not included): How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life chronicled his struggle with cancer, and his use of humor as a kind of physical therapy.

Robert Schimmel died Friday in Phoenix at the age of 60, from injuries sustained in an August 26th car accident in Phoenix, Arizona.

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