Dick Shawn

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Richard Schulefand (December 1, 1923 – April 17, 1987), an American actor and comedian known professionally as Dick Shawn, was born in Buffalo, New York.

1 Biography
2 Death on stage
3 Filmography
4 See also
5 Notes
6 External links and references

[edit] Biography

He is 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 one-man stage shows, billed as "The 2nd Greatest Entertainer in the Whole Wide World."

[edit] Death on stage

He died onstage on April 17, 1987, during a monologue about the Holocaust in San Diego, California, at the age of 63, and is survived by his wife and 4 children. Due to the nature of his act, audience members were at first unaware that he had suffered a massive heart attack and had died.

During his final act, Shawn had been carrying on like he was a politician, saying various campaign cliches, including, "if elected, I will not lay down on the job." He then lay face-down on the stage. And just kept lying there. At one point, he snorted. The audience, meanwhile, thought this was part of his 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 (the first person to come on stage?) 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, had a heart attack on stage and had died.<ref>The "Happy Deaths" of Dick Shawn and Parkyakarkus</ref>