On Sunday, George Carlin admitted himself into a Santa Monica hospital complaining of chest pains. He ended up dying of chest pains later that night.

George Carlin was 71 years old.

Carlin had a very lengthy career. He was on television from 1966 when he made an appearance on “That Girl!” until 2008 when he filmed his last special “It’s Bad for Ya!” for HBO.

He appeared in a variety of programs over the years – including narrating “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” and even appearing as “Mr. Conductor” on the PBS series “Shining Time Station” very briefly. It’s odd to imagine the man responsible for the “Seven Dirty Words” routine on a kid’s show – but it happened…and Carlin was great at all of it.

I grew up watching his stand-up (I probably shouldn’t have – but I did). My brother and I would watch his stand-up specials over and over again (particularly the 1996 special “Back in Town”), memorizing the best bits, and laughing our asses of late into the night.

Over the years George’s comedy evolved and changed from a mostly clean cut friendly guy at the beginning, to a man who seemed man and disgusted with the world towards the end. In the middle there somewhere was a very intelligent man who was engaging, funny, and very important to society whether society wants to admit it or not.