Robert Carradine, ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ and ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Star, Dead at 71

"He was the kindest, sweetest and most loving person one could ever hope to meet," said his Party Nerds Pop-Cast co-host Richard Gabai Obituary Robert Carradine, ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ and ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Star, Dead at 71 "He was the kindest, sweetest and most loving person one could ever hope to meet," said his Party Nerds Pop-Cast co-host Richard Gabai By Charisma Madarang Charisma Madarang Contact Charisma Madarang on X Contact Charisma Madarang by Email Taylor Swift Celebrates ‘Opalite’ Hitting Number One With BTS Videos of Recording Sessions Kali Uchis Concert in Guadalajara Cancelled Amid Violence in Mexico GoFundMe for Eric Dane’s Daughters Verified by Organization as Donations Exceed $300,000 View all posts by Charisma Madarang February 24, 2026 Robert Carradine on May 13, 1996, at Griffith Park Observatory in Los Angeles, CA. Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images Robert Carradine, who starred in the Eighties cult classic Revenge of the Nerds and found a new generation of fans in the early 2000s with Lizzie McGuire, has died at the age of 71. Carradine’s Party Nerds Pop-Cast co-host Richard Gabai confirmed his passing in a statement to Rolling Stone on Monday, Feb. 23. “I lost my best friend today. He was the kindest, sweetest and most loving person one could ever hope to meet,” said Gabai. “I feel very blessed to have had him in my life, and will miss him dearly. The actor’s brother Keith Carradine shared a separate statement with Deadline, which first reported the news of his death. “It is with profound sadness that we must share that our beloved father, grandfather, uncle, and brother Robert Carradine has passed away,” read the family’s statement. “In a world that can feel so dark, Bobby was always a beacon on light to everyone around him. We are bereft at the loss of this beautiful soul and want to acknowledge Bobby’s valiant struggle against his nearly two-decade battle with Bipolar Disorder. We hope his journey can shine a light and encourage addressing the stigma that attaches to mental illness. At this time we ask for the privacy to grieve this unfathomable loss. With gratitude for your understanding and compassion.” Keith said that their family wanted people to be aware of the actor’s struggle with bipolar disorder. “We want people to know it, and there is no shame in it,” said Keith. “It is an illness that got the best of him, and I want to celebrate him for his struggle with it, and celebrate his beautiful soul. He was profoundly gifted, and we will miss him every day. We will take solace in how funny he could be, how wise and utterly accepting and tolerant he was. That’s who my baby brother was.” Born on March 24, 1954, in Los Angeles, Carradine came from an American family of notable actors. His mother, Sonia Sorel, was an actress and artist, and his father, John Carradine, was a prolific and venerated character actor. He had two older brothers, Keith and Christopher, as well as two older half-brothers, David and Bruce, from his father’s first marriage. When asked back in November on the Brett Allan Show podcast what advice Carradine gave aspiring actors, he said, “I tell them what my dad told me and my brothers: Try to get a good literary education, and that usually stops them in their tracks.” Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century Before Carradine made his film debut on The Cowboys with John Wayne in 1972, he said he had “zero interest” in acting and wanted to be a race car driver at the time. It wasn’t until his brother David told him, “You got everything to gain and nothing to lose,” that Robert auditioned for the role. “I got the part, that was that,” he said. Carradine would go on to feature in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, play road-racing Jim Cantrell in the 1976 comedy Cannonball, and appeared in the Oscar-winning drama, Coming Home alongside Jane Fonda and Jon Voight. In 1980, in an atypical casting, Robert along with David and Keith portrayed the Younger brothers in The Long Riders alongside three other sets of real-life siblings. Randy and Dennis Quaid portrayed the Miller brothers, Stacy and James Keach played Frank and Jesse James, and Christopher and Nicholas Guest took on the Ford brothers. Following a run of other features in the early Eighties, including a burnt out rockstar in science fiction film Wavelength, Carradine landed his iconic role as the bespectacled Lewis Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds. He initially spurned the job, however, and told podcast host Allan, “I did not want to be in a movie with the name nerd in the title.” Eventually, his agent cajoled him into auditioning and Carradine, who had long hair at the time, cut it short, and found a “nerdy shirt” and glasses engineers “wore in Apollo 13.&#8221