The Tragic True-Life Story Of Stephen Colbert

It's hard to stay socially relevant as a comedian. Cultural sensibilities change, and if a comedian is unable to adapt, it's easy for them to fall to the wayside. That's what makes it so impressive that Stephen Colbert has remained in the zeitgeist for so long. Most were likely introduced to him as a correspondent on "The Daily Show," a satirical news show on Comedy Central, back in the 1990s. After cutting his teeth there, he graduated to host his own parody news show, "The Colbert Report." 

Rather than simply making jokes about what happened in the news, this series saw Colbert parody the personas of conservative news hosts a la Fox News. Finally, he made the leap from basic cable to a major broadcast network, becoming David Letterman's successor and hosting "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" starting in 2015. That's not even getting into his myriad television and film roles in projects like "Strangers with Candy," "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law," and "Rick and Morty." Playing a love interest on "Sex and the City" was one of the roles that got away from him, but all things considered, it's a stellar career. 

Given his penchant for making people laugh, it may be surprising for some to learn that things haven't always been positive for the comedian. He's experienced enough tragedies to make one wonder how he could ever muster a smile again, let alone laugh, but he's persevered through it all.

Stephen Colbert grew up in a large Catholic family as the youngest of 11 children, with his father, James Colbert Jr., working as an immunologist and later the vice president of academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina starting in 1969. On September 11, 1974, his father had to make a short flight from Charleston to Charlotte, North Carolina with two of Colbert's brothers, Peter and Paul. Despite the flight being incredibly short, foggy conditions spelled disaster for Eastern Air Lines Flight 212.

Just a few miles short of the plane's destination, it crashed into a cornfield. While fog could certainly have played a role, reports have suggested the pilots weren't paying as much attention as they should have. The National Transportation Safety Board listed the following as the cause of the disaster: "The flight crew's lack of altitude awareness at critical points during the approach due to poor cockpit discipline in that the crew did not follow prescribed procedure." Out of the 82 people on board the flight, 69 individuals died, including the three members of Colbert's family. He was only 10 years old at the time. 

The tragedy had an immeasurable impact on Colbert and the rest of his family. His mother, previously a homemaker, began running a bed and breakfast, and while the two grieved, they at least had each other. Years after the fact, Colbert spoke with Anderson Cooper on his podcast, "All There Is with Andeson Cooper," about that time: "It became a very quiet house, very dark, and ordinary concerns of childhood kind of disappeared."

Losing a father and two siblings at such a young age (or any age for that matter) would have a profound impact on anyone. Following the plane crash, Stephen Colbert's mother moved the family to another town, so he also became separated from his friends. With a new environment and a new normal, Colbert understandably had a hard time making friends and connecting with anyone. As an adult, he told The Post and Courier, "Nothing made any sense after my father and my brothers died. I kind of just shut off."

His grades in school went down during this time, as he didn't see much of a point in studying anymore, although he didn't lose his curiosity. He may not have done schoolwork, but he still read voraciously. When he was 13, he fell in love with "The Lord of the Rings" and became a lifelong fan. It's a passion that's continued to be an integral part of his comedy: in 2021, he performed a "Lord of the Rings"-themed rap that blew up online, showing how nerdiness isn't just a phase, but a way of life. 

It was also during this time that he discovered yet another lifelong passion of his: comedy. Instead of staying immersed in his grief, Colbert turned toward humor, even getting voted wittiest in his class in high school. He did theater in high school and met improv legend Del Close, who inspired him to look into being a comedic performer, which led to him taking classes at Second City and meeting some other very funny people, like Amy Sedaris and Chris Farley. 

Everyone's spiritual journey is different. Some people find great solace in religion while others are perfectly content leading secular lives and don't need to believe in a higher power. But Stephen Colbert has spoken about how heartbreaking it was not to believe in God for a while after being raised in a Catholic household. 

As Colbert explains it, he went off to college at Northwestern University and basically embraced atheism. That was particularly hard for him because he wanted to believe in a universe where he would be reunited with his father and brothers, but simply didn't see how that was possible. It brought him great anguish, but he reconsidered his stances years later when he was 22 years old. Speaking with The Jesuit Review, he told a story of walking through Chicago when he was handed a small booklet filled with psalms. He found a passage about anxiety and how worrying won't change anything. He said after that, "I understood the real meaning of the phrase of 'It spoke to me.' The words of Christ just read off the page."

Colbert came back to religion and has practiced Catholicism ever since. He doesn't agree with the Catholic church on everything, even criticizing its stances on abortion and supporting a woman's right to choose. In 2024, he met Pope Francis, whom he had previously spoken highly of due to his more progressive opinions, particularly as they related to taking care of the poor. Colbert is a prodigal son of sorts, finding a place in his life for both his faith and a raunchier subgenre of humor. 

It's easy to see from his work that Stephen Colbert is a smart guy, but instead of pursuing any number of "smart guy" professions, he went full speed ahead into acting and comedy. But success was not guaranteed, and Colbert struggled with immense anxiety. He revealed to Rolling Stone that he took Xanax but that it had more of a numbing effect than anything else: "I realized that the gears were still smoking. I just couldn't hear them anymore. But I could feel them, I could feel the gearbox heating up and smoke pouring out of me."

This would have been around 1993. Colbert hadn't had any huge successes yet and was still performing at Second City, whereas Amy Sedaris had gone off to New York. He also married Evelyn McGee that year, with McGee being the breadwinner while he was at home during the day and working nights. He recalled going to perform in shows and curling up in a ball backstage, only to feel completely fine when he was actually on stage performing. That's when he realized what a gift performing was for him and how he needed to keep at it. 

"Creating something is what helped me from just spinning apart like an unweighted flywheel," Colbert continued. "And I haven't stopped since." His first big job was writing for "The Dana Carvey Show," a notorious '90s flop that's still worth watching, but it showed he was on the right path. 

By 2013, Stephen Colbert had amassed quite the comedic pedigree. He had a lengthy tenure on "The Daily Show" that he parlayed into his own series, "The Colbert Report." The show was satire at its finest, as he played a character who embodied everything he saw as wrong with modern-day newscasting and politics. Even if he never went on to host "The Late Show," "The Colbert Report" would be enough to cement his status as one of the best late night talk show hosts of all time. He was someone who skewed facts and pointed toward the hypocrisies within the Republican party. It was rare to ever see him break character, but that's exactly what he did in a 2013 episode in the aftermath of his mother's death.

On June 12, 2013, Lorna Elizabeth Colbert passed away. Stephen had previously taken a hiatus from the show in 2012 to be with his mother as she had fallen ill. He once again took a break to be with his family upon her death, and when he came back, he took time to talk about how anyone who enjoys watching him as a performer has his mother to thank for encouraging him to pursue his comedic talents. He even recalled how she wanted to be a performer herself when she was younger and taught him and his siblings how to fake faint into a stage fall. 

It's a tragedy for anyone to lose their mother; however, knowing Colbert's backstory makes this death especially poignant. He's spoken about how much he and his mother relied on one another following his father and brothers' deaths. At the end of that episode, Colbert paid one final tribute to his mother by demonstrating her legendary stage fall.

Stephen Colbert had gone through various ups and downs over the years, struggling with mental health and a crisis of faith. But he revealed to Anderson Cooper that his feelings of loss and grief cropped back up when he himself became a father. He described spending time with his daughter when she was six years old and feeling like he only had four more years with her (believing he would die when she turned 10 just like his father did). 

He explained, "My age wasn't important, it was how old they would be when I die. Because I had no model in my head of a relationship between someone older than 10 and a father. But constantly I would do that horrible math all the time." There was also the point where Colbert became older than his father was when he died. When that moment came, he thought about what his dad would do if he had lived to be older, and he figured he would just want to spend time with his children. So that's precisely what Colbert did. 

Cooper related to Colbert's stories with his own experiences of grief, including his brother Carter dying by suicide in 1988 as well as his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, passing shortly before his chat with Colbert. Grief is something everyone goes through but not enough are willing to talk about, and Colbert touched on how it changes over time: "I was struck with this realization that I had a gratitude for the pain of that grief ... Seeing that pain as something that can warm you and light your knowledge of what other people might be going through."

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In 2020, Stephen Colbert revealed to Vanity Fair that he had received a diagnosis for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, a disorder within the inner ear that can cause the sufferer to experience bouts of vertigo and dizziness whenever there's a change in the head's position. It's probably not the best diagnosis to receive for a late night talk show host who regularly needs to get out of his seat, stand up, and talk to celebrities. 

Colbert told Vanity Fair how inconvenient it can be: "It's almost entertaining, until I forget," he said. "And then I go to stand up, and then I just fall down. So, I'm coming to you right now from a very weird angle, slightly listing to port." There are exercises one can do to limit the effects of BPPV, and Colbert was even reminded by his wife in the middle of the interview to perform them so that he didn't get dizzy. 

Of course, 2020 was a tough year for most people, as it was marked by COVID-19 lockdowns that forced Colbert to host his show remotely. He would interview guests over Zoom, and one notable segment saw him chat with Dolly Parton, who performed a soulful rendition of "Bury Me Beneath the Willow" which brought Colbert to tears. In 2020, a lot of us sure would have benefited from a good cry now and then. 

There was a stretch between 2022 and 2023 where Stephen Colbert had a host of medical issues to contend with. The first occurred in April 2022 when he was diagnosed with COVID-19, which led to "The Late Show" getting suspended for a couple of weeks while he recovered. Colbert would battle COVID yet again in October 2023, which once more took "The Late Show" off the air temporarily as he got better. He probably hoped that was enough medical drama for a while, but shortly after his second bout with COVID, Colbert suffered an extreme medical emergency, as appendicitis forced him to once again step away from his talk show for a while. 

When Colbert came back to his show, he offered a monologue explaining how he could feel something wasn't right as his appendix was bursting. He was trying to get through taping an extra show, but the pain was ever-present regardless if he was moving or staying still. But it got much worse when he filmed a segment with chef José Andrés, who, not knowing how much pain Colbert was in, decided to break into a dance routine with the comedian, making things much worse. 

Colbert related all the details of the doctors needing to clean up his insides, since his appendix fully ruptured by the time he got medical help. Appendicitis can be fatal, but fortunately, the procedure to remedy it is common and straightforward as long as prompt treatment is sought.

On July 17, 2025, CBS announced that it was canceling "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," with the final episode airing in May 2026 and the "Late Show" moniker being retired altogether. It was a surprising move given the show's place in the cultural zeitgeist, but fans online began speculating there was more to this story. A couple of weeks prior to the announcement, Paramount (which owns CBS) reached a $16 million legal settlement with Donald Trump for allegedly airing an interview with Kamala Harris that was edited in her favor just days before the 2024 election. Colbert responded to this news on his talk show, referring to the settlement as a "big fat bribe." 

It was during this time that Paramount was trying to close a substantial merger with Skydance, so there were rumors the company wanted to get back in the good graces of Trump by firing a talk show host who regularly made fun of him and even co-created an animated series all about Trump's foibles called "Our Cartoon President." It appeared Trump was pleased with Colbert's cancellation, as he later posted on Truth Social, "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings."

It's unlikely for Paramount to reverse its decision, so come 2026, Colbert will need a new job. But given his prevalence in pop culture for 30 years, it's safe to say he'll land on his feet somewhere and may grow a bigger audience than any he could get on network television.