Richard Schulefand (December 1, 1924 – April 17, 1987), an American actor and comedian known professionally as Dick Shawn, was born in Lackawanna, New York.
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Biography
He is the comedian best remembered for his roles as Sylvester Marcus, the bohemian but Oedipal beach-bum son of Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and as Lorenzo St. DuBois/Adolf Hitler in the musical Springtime for Hitler, the play within the movie, The Producers. He played the DuBois role as a flower power hippie. He is also well-known for voicing Snow Miser in The Year Without a Santa Claus. He had continued success with his award winning one-man stage shows, billed as "The 2nd Greatest Entertainer in the Whole Wide World" and his stand-up comedy act that he successfully performed for over 30 years in nightclubs around the world.
Although he did not make many film or TV appearances over the years, Shawn toured often and periodically performed a one-man show that mixed songs, sketches and even pantomime.
Dick Shawn was a frequent speaker at the infamous Friars Club Roasts in Los Angeles and New York. At these events Shawn often pushed the boundaries of taste even within the framework of the tasteless-by-definition roasts themselves. At one of the X-rated "stag roast" that had overdosed on tasteless routines by the previous speakers, Shawn simply walked up to the microphone, took a long pause, and "vomited" pea soup onto himself and one or two of the other speakers sitting at the dais.
Shawn once said, "I think of my relationship with any audience as a love affair. It lasts only a little while but I always look forward to a happy ending. For both of us." In writing about Dick Shawn's death, New York Post columnist Cindy Adams recounted what the comedian said about trying to find the right audiences for his brand of comedy: "I can't work places like Vegas or the Catskills where people are belching. Maybe I belong in colleges. At least if I die, I die in front of intelligent people who know what I'm talking about."
Death on stage
Shawn died on stage on April 17, 1987 in San Diego, California, at the age of 62, doing a comedy bit about himself and the audience surviving nuclear war. Due to the nature of his act, audience members were at first unaware that he had suffered a massive heart attack and had died. Earlier in the act, Shawn had been portraying a politician, reciting various campaign clichés, including, "if elected, I will not lay down on the job." When he fell and lay face-down on the stage, the audience thought it was part of the act. After some time had gone by, there were catcalls. Finally, someone appeared on stage, kneeled down to look at Shawn, stood up, and called out, "Is there a doctor in the house?" Another person came up on stage, turned Shawn over, and began administering CPR. At this point, someone told the audience to go home. Nobody (or almost nobody) moved – since no one knew if this was part of Shawn's act. Finally, paramedics arrived, and the bewildered audience began leaving, still not sure of what they had seen. A notice in the following day's San Diego Union newspaper (not on page 1) clarified that Shawn had indeed experienced a heart attack on stage and died.[1]
Filmography
- The Opposite Sex (1956)
- Wake Me When It's Over (1960)
- The Wizard of Baghdad (1960)
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
- A Very Special Favor (1965)
- What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
- Way... Way Out (1966)
- Penelope (1966)
- The Producers (1968)
- The Happy Ending (1969)
- Evil Roy Slade (1972)
- The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
- Looking Up (1977)
- Love At First Bite (1979)
- Good-bye Cruel World (1983)
- Young Warriors (1983)
- The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984)
- Angel (1984)
- Water (1985)
- Beer (1985)
- The Check Is in the Mail... (1986)
- The Perils of P.K. (1986)
- Captain EO (1986) (short subject)
- Maid to Order (1987)
- Rented Lips (1988)
- Honorable Mention: Shawn also starred in an episode of Steven Spielberg's TV series Amazing Stories. The episode, Miss Stardust, chronicled a bizarre intergalactic beauty pageant; it co-starred Weird Al Yankovic and was directed by Tobe Hooper.
Trivia
- In 1986, Shawn appeared in the opening of the video for "Dance" by hair metal band Ratt.
