Dick Shawn

Comedian

Dick Shawn was born in Buffalo, New York, United States on December 1st, 1923 and is the Comedian. At the age of 63, Dick Shawn biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, movies, and networth are available.

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Other Names / Nick Names
Richard Schulefand
Date of Birth
December 1, 1923
Nationality
United States
Place of Birth
Buffalo, New York, United States
Death Date
Apr 17, 1987 (age 63)
Zodiac Sign
Sagittarius
Profession
Film Actor, Screenwriter, Stage Actor
Dick Shawn Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 63 years old, Dick Shawn has this physical status:

Height
183cm
Weight
Not Available
Hair Color
Grey
Eye Color
Not Available
Build
Average
Measurements
Not Available
Dick Shawn Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Jewish
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Not Available
Dick Shawn Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Rita Bachner ​(m. 1946)​
Children
4
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
Siblings
Joey Travolta (son-in-law)
Dick Shawn Career

Born in Buffalo, New York and raised in nearby Lackawanna, Shawn performed his stand-up comedy act for over 35 years in nightclubs around the world. His award-winning one-man stage show, The Second Greatest Entertainer in the Whole Wide World, was sometimes performed with a unique opening. When the audience entered the theater, they saw a bare stage with a pile of bricks in stage center. When the play began, Shawn emerged from the pile of bricks. The startling effect of this required complete concentration and breath control because the slightest movement of the bricks could ruin the surprise appearance.

In addition to roles in more than 30 movies and seven Broadway productions, Shawn made television appearances, toured often, and periodically performed a one-man show that mixed songs, sketches, and pantomime. He was a speaker at the Friars Club Roasts in Los Angeles and New York. At one of the X-rated roasts (a 1986 Playboy roast of Tommy Chong) that had overdosed on tasteless routines by previous speakers, Shawn walked up to the microphone, took a long pause, and "vomited" pea soup onto himself and other speakers at the dais.

In the Mel Brooks 1967 movie The Producers, Shawn won accolades for his portrayal of Lorenzo St. DuBois, whose "friends call" him LSD, an actor auditioning for and winning the part of Hitler in a theatrical production that was intentionally meant to fail.

Shawn's television appearances included The Ed Sullivan Show, TV movies, sitcoms (including Three's Company on which he played Jack Tripper's father), dramas including St. Elsewhere and Magnum, P.I., and a music video for "Dance" by the hair metal band Ratt (1986). In the UK he appeared in Sunday Night at the London Palladium in 1958.

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 for 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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