Actor and comedian William Gardell Jr., better known as Billy Gardell, is famous for starring in popular sitcoms like Mike and Molly, My Name Is Earl, Yes, Dear, Sullivan & Son, and many more. The actor is currently part of another running sitcom titled Bob Hearts Abishola as Bob Wheeler.
The fifty-year-old actor slash comedian hails from Pennsylvania and has also spent a significant time of his life in Florida. At the age of fifteen, the actor revealed, he had started working part-time jobs, one of which was at a local comedy house. This comedy club was also the place where Billy was first introduced to stand-up.
While it was a silly bet that made Billy go up on the stage for the first time, it was also this bet that got him to be the opening act for some significant comedians of the time, like Dennis Miller and George Carlin. Throughout his interviews, Billy has mentioned Carlin, John Candy, and Jackie Gleason, among others, as comedians and commentators who have had a heavy influence on his style of comedy and acting career.
Fans may have seen Gardell starring in several films like Bad Santa and Avenging Angelo and a bunch load of sitcoms like Heist, Desperate Housewives, Lucky, Bones, and many more. While juggling between films and series and his comedy career, Gardell also found time to be on the radio and presently features on The DVE Morning Show on a weekly basis.
Gardell was also cast in the spinoff show Young Sheldon as their neighbor, Herschel Sparks. The comedian is presently married to his wife, Patty Knight, and the two have a son named William III. The comedian has also expressed his wish to retire early on to be more present in his only son’s life, though this dream had to be pushed back as Billy decided to go on a very public weight loss journey to get his body in a healthy shape.
Gardell’s Weight Loss Transformation
Actor and comedian Billy Gardell revealed that at his heaviest, he weighed close to 370 pounds and that he fluctuated somewhere between 205 pounds to 210 pounds for some time before finally settling at 150 pounds. The actor has revealed that the one thing that pushed him to get bariatric surgery at his age and to continue forth with a healthy diet and exercise to lose weight was his son.
He mentioned during his interviews that at the age of fifty, he did the calculations and realized that if he wanted to be with his son for as long as possible, he had to get healthy. The actor also went on a television show called “My Type 2 Transformation” that recorded his weight loss journey.
Billy has told fans that he does not suffer from Type 2 diabetes anymore and that his heart rate has gone down from 113 BPM to a more healthy 68 BPM. He has lost over a hundred pounds and looks better than ever. Billy revealed that he has a more healthy relationship with food and that he is trying to be his best version possible.
He has always mentioned that the sole reason for him giving up all his bad habits to become more healthy was his only son and his wish to be the best role model for him that he could. Though the actor has been keeping up with his new healthy lifestyle, he still struggles to give up one bad habit, which is smoking, though he has confessed that he is trying to lose that habit too.
In recent interviews, Billy revealed that during the time when he was fat, he was called names and was shamed for being fat, as if he was doing it on purpose, and that now the actor has lost all the extra weight and he looks and feels good, there are still people on the internet who thinks that their right to access social media platforms gives them the right to give unsolicited opinions, asking Billy if he is sick.
But it seems like the actor is ready to move on from conversations revolving around his weight and diet and the way he looks because he replied to all those nosy people on the internet with his witty rhetoric question, “Can I just walk the Earth?”. This seems to have finally shut up the internet trolls, and the actor seems to be living a carefree and healthy life with his family.
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