1960
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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.
Comedian Dick Shawn died at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla Friday night after apparently suffering a heart attack on stage during a performance at UC San Diego.
One-of-a-kind comedian Dick Shawn was as intriguingly clever and off-the-wall as they came. As such, he proved to be rather an acquired taste on film and TV. A counterculture favorite far ahead of his time, it became a hit-and-miss effort in proper vehicles for this man's eccentric genius.
Dick Shawn, a versatile comedian-actor whose stage, film and television career spanned 35 years, died on stage only seconds after delivering a punchline.
But when comedian Dick Shawn collapsed on stage Friday night at the University of California, San Diego, it was from a heart attack that took his life at age 63.
On April 17, 1987, comic actor Dick Shawn — manic, physically dexterous, unpredictable — fell to the floor during a solo performance in San Diego and never got up. At the age of 63, he had died on the job.
It was the last uniqueness of a unique career that Dick Shawn could fall dying on stage in full view of an audience that imagined, for some long, uncomfortable moments, that the fall was part...
