In this 1979 file image originally released by Columbia Pictures, actor-comedian Dom DeLuise sits in his director’s chair while working on the film “Hot Stuff.” DeLuise died in Southern California on Monday, according to his son, Michael DeLuise. He was 75.

Los Angeles ? With an ever-present smile that gave way to ready laughter, Dom DeLuise possessed a jovial warmth that charmed not only film and TV audiences but also the actors and directors with whom he worked for decades. Though lighthearted onscreen, the prolific actor was deeply passionate about food, forging a second career as a popular chef and cookbook author.

The affable and portly star, described as a natural comedian who kept the laughs rolling even when the cameras weren’t, died Monday at age 75.

“You can’t teach someone to be funny,” his agent, Robert Malcolm, said Tuesday. “He was born funny, and he knew how to charm you and he knew how to make you feel comfortable. He loved people.”

DeLuise was surrounded by his wife and three sons when he died “peacefully” Monday evening at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., Malcolm said.

The family did not release the cause of death, saying only in a statement on the actor-comedian’s official Web site Tuesday: “It’s easy to mourn his death but easier to remember a time when he made you laugh.”

DeLuise appeared in scores of movies and TV shows, in Broadway plays and voiced characters for numerous cartoons. Writer-director-actor Mel Brooks particularly admired DeLuise’s talent for offbeat comedy and cast him in several films, including “The Twelve Chairs,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Silent Movie,” “History of the World Part I” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.” DeLuise was also the voice of Pizza the Hutt in Brooks’ “Star Wars” parody, “Spaceballs.”

“Dom DeLuise was a big man in every way,” Brooks said in a statement Tuesday. “He was big in size and created big laughter and joy. He will be missed in a very big way.”

The actor also frequently appeared opposite his friend Burt Reynolds in films such as “The End,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,” “Smokey and the Bandit II,” “The Cannonball Run” and “Cannonball Run II.” Reynolds fondly recalled DeLuise in a statement issued by his publicist.

“I was thinking about this the other day,” Reynolds said. “As you get older and start to lose people you love, you think about it more and I was dreading this moment. Dom always made you feel better when he was around and there will never be another like him. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much.”

“To know Dom was to love him and I knew him very well. Not only was he talented and extremely funny, but he was a very special human being,” said actress Carol Burnett, who starred with DeLuise on TV show “The Entertainers” in the ’60s. DeLuise also appeared on “The Carol Burnett Show” in the 1970s.

Other TV credits included appearances on such shows as “The Munsters,” “The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.,” “Burke’s Law,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Diagnosis Murder.” On Broadway, DeLuise appeared in Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and other plays.

In part because of his passion for food, the actor battled obesity, reaching as much as 325 pounds and for years resisting family members and doctors who tried to put him on various diets. He finally agreed in 1993 when his doctor refused to perform hip replacement surgery until he lost 100 pounds (he lost enough weight for the surgery, though gained some of it back).

On the positive side, his love of food resulted in two successful cookbooks, 1988’s “Eat This — It Will Make You Feel Better!” and 1997’s “Eat This Too! It’ll Also Make You Feel Good.”