NEW YORK - Veteran stand-up comic Patrice O'Neal, who gained a wider following through TV and radio and helped roast Charlie Sheen, died yesterday of complications of a stroke he suffered last month. He was 41.
O'Neal's manager, Jonathan Brandstein, said O'Neal died in a New York-area hospital.
"Many of us have lost a close and loved friend; all of us have lost a true comic genius," Brandstein said in a statement.
O'Neal appeared on Conan O'Brien's and David Letterman's TV shows and was a frequent guest on the "Opie & Anthony" radio show on Sirius XM. His performance was a highlight of the Comedy Central roast of Sheen, who had been fired from the hit CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men," in September.
