Michael McKean pens a tribute to Laverne & Shirley co-star David Lander: "I wanted to tell you what it was like to encounter this unique man for the first time..."

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"David L. Lander died on December 4, 2020," writes McKean. "We knew it was coming: the MS had been working him over for more than three decades, but those of us who loved David were devastated anyway, despite the knowledge that his suffering was finally at an end. We’re still trying to reframe life without him. His wife of forty years, Kathy Fields Lander, has pointed out that one of the great lessons of his last years was how his humor overrode so much of the pain and physical decline. Kathy was pretty tough to begin with, but David showed her some new moves in the big fight. My life with David is too long a story to share in one gulp, but I wanted to tell you what it was like to encounter this unique man for the first time, and a little of what happened next."