Dick Shawn
Also Known As: Richard Schulefand
Biography: One-of-a-kind nightclub comedian and singer Dick Shawn (ne Richard Schulefand) was as off-the-wall as they came and, as such, proved to be rather an acquired taste. Way ahead of his time most say, it was extremely difficult indeed to know how to properly tap into this man's eclectic talents. Shawn began inching toward the forefront during the be-bop 50s and early 60s with his odd penchant for playing cool cats. During his mild bid for film stardom, he was top-billed as a hip, laid back genie in the thoroughly dismal satire The Wizard of Baghdad (1960), but seemed to have better luck when taken in smaller doses. He fared quite well opposite another "way-out-there" comedian, Ernie Kovacs, in Wake Me When It's Over (1960) as a hustling soldier out to make a buck in the Far East. Also on the plus side, he replaced Zero Mostel in the bawdy musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" on Broadway and stole a small scene in the all-star epic comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). By far, the one role that completely overshadows all of his other hard work is his mock portrayal of a singing Adolf Hitler in the show-within-a-movie The Producers (1968). In the film, which starred Mostel and Gene Wilder as two con artists deliberately producing a stage "bomb" called "Springtime for Hitler," Shawn sang the hammy, absurdly narcissistic song "Love Power." The movie finally captured Shawn in his element, but this stroke of genius of matching actor to role would never happen again for him. For the most part his roles came off slick and smarmy, and were stuck in mediocre material. Shawn won a huge fan base, however, touring in one-man stage shows which contained a weird mix of songs, sketches, satire, philosophy and even pantomime. A bright, innovative wit, one of his best touring shows was called "The Second Greatest Entertainer in the World." During the show's intermission, Shawn would lie visibly on the stage floor absolutely still during the entire time. By freakish coincidence, Shawn was performing at the University of California at San Diego in 1987 when he suddenly fell forward on the stage during one of his spiels about the Holocaust. The audience, of course, laughed, thinking it was just a part of his odd shtick. In actuality, the 63-year-old married actor with four children had suffered a fatal heart attack. A not-surprising end for this thoroughly offbeat and intriguing personality.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Buffalo, New York, USA
Birthday: December 01, 1923
Deathday: April 17, 1987
Adult: No
Gender: Male
Popularity:
Known For:
Angel
Overview: Molly Stewart, a teen at the top of her class who survives by working nights as a prostitute on Hollywood Blvd, finds her world beginning to fall apart when a depraved, necrophiliac serial killer begins targeting LA’s streetwalkers.
Genres: Action Crime Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-04-19
Popularity:
Maid to Order
Overview: Spoiled Jessie Montgomery, whose wild behavior and spending excesses cause her well-meaning but exasperated millionaire father Charles to wish he never had her, is visited by fairy godmother Stella. In an effort to save Jessie, Stella casts a spell which causes Charles to no longer have a daughter. Jessie, now penniless and without a friend, must take a maid's job to earn a living, and hopefully to learn her lesson.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-07-10
Popularity:
The Producers
Overview: Broadway producer Max Bialystock and his accountant, Leo Bloom plan to make money by charming wealthy old biddies to invest in a production many times over the actual cost, and then put on a sure-fire flop, so nobody will ask for their money back – and what can be a more certain flop than a tasteless musical celebrating Hitler.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1968-03-18
Popularity:
Young Warriors
Overview: After a young woman is gang raped and murdered in a California college town, her brother takes up arms by night with a gang of like-minded vigilantes from his fraternity, brutally punishing any miscreants they catch in a criminal act.
Genres: Action Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-08-28
Popularity:
Best Chest in the West
Overview: What happens when dozens of beautiful California girls compete for the title of “BEST CHEST IN THE WEST”? In this show, anything goes! Dick Shawn hosts this fun-filled show packed with comedy, dancing, music and of course the best chests in the West. Celebrity judges Pat McCormick, Carol Wayne and Avery Schreiber pick winners in the three different categories: Itty-Bitties, Middle-Weights and Hefty Honies. These girls will do just about anything to influence the judges as well as the celebrity filled audience.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-01-01
Popularity:
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Overview: A group of strangers come across a man dying after a car crash who proceeds to tell them about the $350,000 he buried in California. What follows is the madcap adventures of those strangers as each attempts to claim the prize for himself.
Genres: Action Adventure Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-11-07
Popularity:
The Year Without a Santa Claus
Overview: Feeling forgotten by the children of the world, old St. Nick decides to skip his gift-giving journey and take a vacation. Mrs. Claus and two spunky little elves, Jingle and Jangle, set out to see to where all the season's cheer has disappeared. Aided by a magical snowfall, they reawaken the spirit of Christmas in children's hearts and put Santa back in action.
Genres: Animation Family TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-12-10
Popularity:
What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
Overview: A by-the-book Captain is ordered to capture a strategic village in Italy. The Italian soldiers are willing to surrender, if they can have a festival first. The lieutenant convinces the Captain this is the only way. Because of aerial reconnaissance, they must look like they are fighting. To sort this out an intelligence officer is sent in. Meanwhile the festival gets complicated with the Mayors daughter.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-08-31
Popularity:
Love at First Bite
Overview: Dracula and Renefield relocate to 70's era New York in search of Cindy Sondheim, the reincarnation of Dracula's one true love, Mina Harker. "Trouble adjusting" is a wild understatement for the Count as he battles Cindy's psychiatrist, Jeffrey Rosenberg, a descendant of Van Helsing, who may almost certainly, possibly, may be in love with Cindy too.
Genres: Romance Comedy Horror
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-04-26
Popularity:
Captain EO
Overview: In this 3-D science fiction film that was shown at Disney theme parks, the infamous Captain EO and his ragtag crew are sent on a diplomatic mission through space to deliver a gift to the mysterious and menacing Supreme Leader of a desolate industrial planet.
Genres: Music Science Fiction Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-09-12
Popularity:
The Happy Ending
Overview: The triumphs and failures of middle age as seen through the eyes of runaway American housewife Mary Wilson, a woman who believes that ultimate reality exists above and beyond the routine procedures of conscious, uninspired, everyday life. She feels cheated by an older generation that taught her to settle for nothing less than storybook finales, people who are disillusioned and restless and don't know why, people for whom life holds no easy answers.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-12-21
Popularity:
Way... Way Out
Overview: A platonically wed American couple run a lunar weather station near an unwed Soviet couple.
Genres: Comedy Science Fiction
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-10-26
Popularity:
Wake Me When It's Over
Overview: The war may be over, but that doesn't keep the hapless Gus Brubaker from being drafted and posted on a forgotten little Japanese Island...and that's just the beginning of this wacky Air Force adventure!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-06-10
Popularity:
Looking Up
Overview: Family secrets are revealed as three generations of a middle-class New York Jewish family come together in this story of good relations and bad relations.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-05-15
Popularity:
Penelope
Overview: When Penelope gets married to banker James Elcott, she finds him too preoccupied with work to pay much attention to her, so she robs his bank in disguise. After she confesses to her psychiatrist, Greg Mannix, he offers to return the money for her, as he is secretly in love with her. However, he abandons the money when the police approach. Penelope becomes determined to admit to the crime, but neither James nor the police believe her story.
Genres: Comedy Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-11-10
Popularity:
Playboy's 25th Anniversary Celebration
Overview: A salute to Playboy Magazine on the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary, hosted by founding publisher Hugh Hefner and an all-male guest list.
Genres: TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-05-07
Popularity:
Good-bye Cruel World
Overview: The story involves newscaster Rodney Pointsetter (Shawn) who is so depressed between his job and his family that he tries to make a film about his life, which he intends to culminate with his own suicide. It is often interrupted with irrelevant comic sketches that an emcee claims that the audience prefers to see.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1983-01-02
Popularity:
A Very Special Favor
Overview: The long-lost father of a frigid, uptight Freudian psychologist contracts a wealthy American playboy who owes him a favor to woo his daughter.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-08-02
Popularity:
If the Shoes Fit...
Overview: Gubernatorial candidate's belief that politics is nothing more than entertainment, is helped at a hotel where the bellboy and maid help him get ready to show the public his true colors.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-05-12
Popularity:
Evil Roy Slade
Overview: Orphaned and left in the desert as an infant, Evil Roy Slade (John Astin) grew up alone—save for his teddy bear—and mean. As an adult, he is notorious for being the "meanest villain in the West"—so he's thrown for quite a loop when he falls for sweet schoolteacher Betsy Potter (Pamela Austin). There's also Nelson L. Stool (Mickey Rooney), a railroad tycoon, who, along with his dimwitted nephew Clifford (Henry Gibson), is trying to get revenge on Evil Roy Slade for robbing him.
Genres: TV Movie Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-02-18
Popularity:
The Making of Captain EO
Overview: Documentary of the making of Michael Jackson's Captain EO film for the Disney theme parks.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-09-12
Popularity:
The Tommy Chong Roast
Overview: A "tribute" to comedian Tommy Chong, given to him by many of his fellow comedians.
Genres: TV Movie Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-01-01
Popularity:
Mel Brooks: Unwrapped
Overview: At the age of 91, Mel Brooks is unstoppable, with his musical "Young Frankenstein" opening to great critical acclaim in London in late 2017. Alan Yentob visits Mel at home in Hollywood, at work and at play.
Genres: Documentary Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-02-17
Popularity:
The Opposite Sex
Overview: Former radio singer Kay learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve, has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal. Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back. The Opposite Sex is a remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.
Genres: Comedy Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-15
Popularity:
The Wizard of Baghdad
Overview: A genie turned mortal after his many failures is sent to Baghdad. As his last chance to prove himself he must help a prince and princess fulfill a prophecy.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-03-03
Popularity:
Water
Overview: The British governor of a tiny island nation in the Caribbean Commonwealth finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when an American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.
Genres: Adventure Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-01-11
Popularity:
The Emperor's New Clothes
Overview: Two con men take advantage of an emperor's vanity.
Genres: Comedy Fantasy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1985-10-05
Popularity:
Dames at Sea
Overview: Dames at Sea is a musical with book and lyrics by George Haimsohn and Robin Miller and music by Jim Wise. The musical is a parody of large, flashy 1930s Busby Berkeley-style movie musicals in which a chorus girl, newly arrived off the bus from the Midwest to New York City, steps into a role on Broadway and becomes a star. It originally played Off-Off-Broadway in 1966 at the Caffe Cino and then played Off-Broadway, starring newcomer Bernadette Peters, beginning in 1968 for a successful run. The television version was broadcast on the Bell System Family Theater on NBC on November 15, 1971. The cast had extra chorus girls and boys, and there were full production numbers, turning into the very thing it was spoofing. Ann Miller was singled out for praise, especially when "she was allowed to tap out her brassy...temperamental star..."
Genres: Music Comedy TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1971-11-15
Popularity:
Something a Little Less Serious: A Tribute to 'It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World'
Overview: A star-studded documentary and tribute to the classic comedy, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
Genres: Comedy Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1991-01-01
Popularity:
Annie: the Women in the Life of a Man
Overview: A CBS television special, renowned for its legendary "Yma, Ava....Yma, Uta... Yma, Oona" sequence. Annie: the Women in the Life of a Man (1970), won Anne Bancroft her only Emmy for her portrayal of 14 different woman in 14 musical and comedy sketches. Bancroft's husband Mel Brooks contributed to the script and also appears onscreen.
Genres: Music Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-02-18
Popularity:
The Perils of P.K
Overview: P.K., a former movie star now reduced to working as a stripper in a Las Vegas nightclub, is desperate for a comeback, and thinks she could make one if she could only get a big-name star to appear in a movie with her. She relates all these problems, and many of her fantasies, to her psychiatrist, and also approaches several entertainers working in Las Vegas to try to get them to help make her dream come true.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-06-06
Popularity:
Rented Lips
Overview: A documentary filmmaker, who has spent the last 15 years making films like "Aluminum: Our Shiny Friend," is finally given the chance to make the documentary on Indian farming he has always wanted to. The catch? He must simultaneously direct a porn film. But as he tries to make the porn film, which he turns into a musical called "Halloween in the Barracks," he must deal with a temperamental actor, a fundamentalist preacher, and other obstacles.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1987-10-28
Popularity:
Batman & Robin
Overview: Batman and Robin deal with relationship issues while preventing Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy from attacking Gotham City.
Genres: Action Science Fiction Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1997-06-20
Popularity:
Fast Friends
Overview: A young divorcee struggles to provide for her young son and make a new life for herself in the backstage jungle of a TV talk show, becoming fast friends with its head writer whose job it is to see that its host, a woman-chasing egomaniac, stays at the top of the ratings.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1979-03-19
Popularity:
Leave 'em Laughing
Overview: An evening of stand-up comedy takes a not so funny turn, leaving the audience wondering what they just witnessed.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2020-07-25
Popularity:
The Check is in the Mail...
Overview: Meet Richard Jackson - a man fed up with the insanity of "plastic" suburban living. Rallying his befuddled family around him, Richard mounts an outrageously comic assault on credit card craziness, "Yuppie" status symbols and "the system" in general!
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1986-05-02
Popularity:
The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud
Overview: Screwball account of the legendary psychologist's life leading up to his ground-breaking theories.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1984-01-01
Popularity: