Actor/comic Dick Shawn was #BornOnThisDay, Dec. 1, 1923. He played Hitler in "The Producers."

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Actor/comic Dick Shawn was #BornOnThisDay, Dec. 1, 1923. Remembered in films as "Sylvester" in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) & as the hippie/actor in The Producers (1968).Passed in 1987(age 63)from heart-attack,collapsing face-down,while performing on stage. #RIP #GoneTooSoon

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Dick Shawn

Shawn in 1964

Born: Richard Schulefand; December 1, 1923; Lackawanna, New York, U.S.
Died: April 17, 1987 (aged 63); San Diego, California, U.S.

Dick Shawn (born Richard Schulefand, December 1, 1923 – April 17, 1987) was an American actor and comedian. He played a wide variety of supporting roles and was a prolific character actor. During the 1960s he played small roles in madcap comedies, usually portraying caricatures of counter culture personalities, such as deadbeat son Sylvester Marcus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), the hippie actor Lorenzo Saint DuBois ( "L.S.D." ) in The Producers (1967). He also provided the voice of Snow Miser in The Year Without a Santa Claus. Besides his film work, he appeared in numerous television shows from the 1960s through the 1980s.

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Career

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Amongst his roles in anthology TV series, he starred in an Amazing Stories episode "Miss Stardust", directed by Tobe Hooper, about a bizarre intergalactic beauty pageant, and played the Emperor in The Emperor's New Clothes in Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre. He filled in for vacationing Johnny Carson as guest host on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on January 1, 1971, which saw the last cigarette commercial on American television (for Virginia Slims) aired on TV, one minute before the cigarette ads were banned.

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Death

On April 17, 1987, during a performance at University of California, San Diego's Mandeville Hall, Shawn suffered a heart attack and collapsed face-down on the stage. The audience initially assumed that it was part of his act; but after he had remained motionless on the stage for several minutes, a stage hand examined him and asked if a physician was present.

After CPR had been initiated, the audience was asked to leave the auditorium. Most in attendance remained, still assuming that it was all part of Shawn's act and only began leaving after paramedics arrived. A notice in the following day's San Diego Union newspaper announced that Shawn had died during the performance at the age of 63. Shawn was interred at Hillside Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California.

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Dick Shawn comedy routine (The Judy Garland Show)
6,758 views Aug 11, 2014

John Beake
2.09K subscribers

Dick Shawn was known for his performance of Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman), in Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World but in this video you will understand that he was a complete broadway artist.
John

Sylvester chases Russell and Finch - It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
102,264 views Nov 15, 2009

CountFlahula
6.87K subscribers

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Four vehicles are passed by a speeding black sedan on a lonely highway in Southern California. The car, driven by "Smiler" Grogan (Jimmy Durante in his last screen appearance), careens off the twisting, mountainous road over a cliff. It turns out that Smiler was the chief suspect in a long-ago tuna factory robbery and had been evading police detectives when he crashed.

"That's our Hitler!"

Love Power - Lorenzo St. DuBois
166,933 views Jul 29, 2006

Kevin Hobbs
10.6K subscribers

From the 1968 movie "The Producers". Dick Shawn as Lorenzo St. DuBois. Dig that groovy Campbell's Soup can pendant, baby.

Dick Shawn November 11, 1986
49,407 views Apr 28, 2017

pianopappy
6.61K subscribers

[dem4decades]

1. he was terrific in both those roles. Thanks.

[Grokenstein]

2. His "Hipler" was an unexpected laugh riot

to both the theatergoers and movie audiences. It's my favorite Mel Brooks movie (just edging out Young Frankenstein) but if "Springtime" hadn't knocked it out of the park the whole film would have crashed and burned.

[geardaddy]

3. That other guy on stage

also played Jerry's dad on Seinfeld.

[pressbox69]

4. ...

THAT'S OUR HITLER!