After nine seasons, the popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond broadcast its final episode in May of 2005. The star of the show, Ray Romano, went from life as a struggling stand-up comedian to one of the highest-paid actors on television.

At the conclusion of the last day’s filming, Romano spoke to the studio audience, reflecting on his past and his future. He read from a note his brothers had stuck in his luggage the day he moved from New York to Hollywood, nine years earlier.

“My older brother Richard wrote, ‘What does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?’” said a tearful Romano. “Now I’m going to work on my soul.”