Robert Carradine, the American actor known for playing Lewis Skolnick in Revenge of the Nerds and Sam McGuire on Disney Channel’s Lizzie McGuire, died February 23, 2026. He was 71. His family said he died by suicide.
Carradine broke through in film in the 1970s, appearing in The Cowboys (1972), Mean Streets (1973), and the Oscar-winning Vietnam drama Coming Home (1978). He later became a comedy fixture as Skolnick in the 1984 hit Revenge of the Nerds and returned for sequels that kept the character in the pop-culture conversation for years.
For a new generation, he was Lizzie’s steady, supportive dad, Sam McGuire, on Lizzie McGuire from 2001 to 2004, appearing in 65 episodes. He also reunited with co-star Curtis Armstrong to co-host the pop-culture competition series King of the Nerds, extending the franchise’s appeal beyond the movies.
A Los Angeles native and the youngest member of the Carradine acting family, he also pursued racing, and his family said he drove for Lotus in the late 1980s and 1990s. In describing his nearly two-decade struggle with bipolar disorder, his family tied his death to mental illness and pushed for more open discussion.