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Lenny Schultz, the high-energy comedian known for his wild stage antics, unconventional props, and physical humor, has died at the age of 91. His son, Mark Schultz, confirmed that he passed away on Sunday of natural causes at his home in Delray Beach, Florida.

Schultz made a name for himself with an unpredictable performance style that involved food, props, and absurdist routines, often leaving audiences in hysterics. His influence could be seen in later comedians such as Robin Williams, Gallagher, Carrot Top, and Sam Kinison. Fans would regularly chant “Go crazy, Lenny!” during his shows, a phrase that encapsulated his comedic philosophy.

“They would go nuts, the people,” Schultz recalled in a 2017 interview. “It was very hard to follow my act because I’m doing silly and crazy things.”

Born in the Bronx on December 13, 1933, Schultz originally pursued a career in baseball and was offered a minor-league contract with the New York Yankees.

Lenny Schultz, the frenetic stand-up comic who used food and other stuff as props in a madcap act that took him to The Tonight Show and the rebooted Laugh-In — all as he kept his job as a high school gym teacher — has died. He was 91.

Schultz died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Delray Beach, Florida, his son, Mark Schultz, told The Hollywood Reporter.

With a physical brand of humor later embraced by the likes of Robin Williams, Gallagher, Carrot Top and Sam Kinison, the curly haired Schultz would compile a list of admirers that included David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Billy Crystal, Brett Butler and Jon Stewart. Audiences at his shows would yell “Go crazy, Lenny!” and that’s what he — and his fans — would do.

“They would go nuts, the people,” Schultz said in a 2017 interview. “It was very hard to follow my act because I’m doing silly and crazy things,...

There's nothing that compares to watching a live sporting event in real-time, an experience that can be full of action, emotion, and unpredictability for the viewer. A sports documentary may not be the same as watching live, but can actually offer even more, capturing that excitement while also adding perspective and nuance that can deepen any fan's appreciation of pretty much any sport.

But what makes a sports documentary great? That's a question for which there's not a single easy answer, given that different documentaries offer different pleasures depending on their focus, agenda, and, to a certain extent, the way in which they're put together. With that in mind, it shouldn't be surprising that Netflix is a phenomenal source for documentaries and docuseries set in the world of sports, spanning pretty much every sport imaginable. Some of these feature some of the biggest names in sports, while others highlight fascinating...

Everyone in Hollywood had to get their start somewhere, and it's always fascinating when we hear a story outside of nepotism. Actor Danny DeVito had worked as a hairstylist in a mortuary for a brief period of time, Christopher Walken was a former lion tamer, and legendary horror director Wes Craven cut his teeth in the adult film industry. Most of the eccentric rags-to-riches stories of A-list celebrities have been told time and time again, but director Todd Field, of the fantastic Cate Blanchett vehicle "TÁR," may have the coolest origin story of all. Field has been working in the industry for decades, first appearing as an actor in projects like "Radio Days," "Twister," and "Eyes Wide Shut," before pivoting to writing and directing critical darlings like "In The Bedroom" and "Little Children."

Field has been nominated for three Academy Awards for his writing, and if "TÁR," continues to bring...

Is this show a hatchet job on Raymond Chandler’s confidential agent, or do Robert Altman and Leigh Brackett honestly find a place for Philip Marlowe in the laid-back 1970s? Vilmos Zsigmond’s even more laid-back ‘pushed and pre-flashed’ cinematography made industry news by shooting in places that normally needed three times more artificial light. The characters are vivid, as portrayed by Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, and Mark Rydell. It’s also a terrific Los Angeles film, from Marlowe’s Hollywood apartment to the Malibu Colony, and a dangster’s Sunset Blvd. tower office suite. Elliott Gould’s mellow Marlowe may be unfocused and sloppy, but he still subscribes to the old ethics, particularly where friendship and betrayal are concerned. And darn it, he cares about his pet cat.

The Long Goodbye

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date December 14, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Elliott Gould,...

Samuel E. Wright, whose vocal portrayal of Sebastian the crab in Disney’s The Little Mermaid included the Oscar-winning “Under the Sea,” died yesterday. He was 74.

His death was announced on the Facebook page of the town of Montgomery, New York, where Wright lived. A cause of death was not specified.

“Sam was an inspiration to us all and along with his family established the Hudson Valley Conservatory,” the tribute states. “Sam and his family have impacted countless Hudson Valley youth always inspiring them to reach higher and dig deeper to become the best version of themselves. On top of his passion for the arts and his love for his family, Sam was most known for walking into a room and simply providing Pure Joy to those he interacted with. He loved to entertain, he loved to make people smile and laugh and he loved to love.”

Though known to...

Jim Bouton, the former All-Star pitcher for the New York Yankees who threw baseball the ultimate curve with the publication of his 1970 tell-all book, Ball Four, has died. He was 80.

Bouton died Wednesday at his home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, his family said. He suffered two strokes in 2012 that impaired his memory and five years later was diagnosed with a brain disease linked to dementia.

In addition to baseball, Bouton had a dalliance with Hollywood, appearing in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) as a sleazy friend of private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) and starring ...

Jim Bouton, the former All-Star pitcher for the New York Yankees who threw baseball the ultimate curve with the publication of his 1970 tell-all book, Ball Four, has died. He was 80.

Bouton died Wednesday at his home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, his family said. He suffered two strokes in 2012 that impaired his memory and five years later was diagnosed with a brain disease linked to dementia.

In addition to baseball, Bouton had a dalliance with Hollywood, appearing in Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) as a sleazy friend of private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) and starring ...

Jim Bouton, whose groundbreaking book Ball Four was one of the first tell-all books in sports, has died at age 80. He passed today in Massachusetts from a brain disease linked to dementia.

Bouton had great success as a pitcher with the New York Yankees in the early 1960s, winning 20 games and two World Series contests. But his book Ball Four (written with New York Post sportswriter Leonard Shecter) broke some of the sporting world’s biggest taboos, revealing behind-the-scenes carousing by legends like Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford, and the widespread use of amphetamines by ballplayers.

The book chronicled Bouton’s 1969 season pitching for the expansion Seattle Pilots and Houston Astros, but it was the Yankees information that drew the biggest uproar. For breaking the omerta, Bouton was ostracized by many of his fellow players, particularly ex-teammates, and he was blackballed from Yankees events for 50 years. Finally, the...

Every Friday, we’re recommending an older movie available to stream or download and worth seeing again through the lens of our current moment. We’re calling the series “Revisiting Hours“— consider this Rolling Stone’s unofficial film club. This week’s special, Super-Bowl-weekend edition: Dan Epstein on the football-movie classic North Dallas Forty.

Rudely awakened by his alarm clock, Phil Elliott (Nick Nolte) fumbles blindly for the prescription drug bottles that line his nightstand. Staggering into the kitchen, he finally locates a couple of precious painkillers, washing them down...

The independent spirit is alive and well, with Justin Lin (the Fast & Furious franchise) fighting off interest from DreamWorks, Columbia Pictures and Fox Searchlight to acquire the rights to remake The Battered Bastards of Baseball, which screened to great acclaim in the Documentary Premieres section of the Sundance Film Festival on 20 January. Todd Field – who has a personal connection to the subject of the film – is now in talks to write and direct.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball details the rise of the Portland Mavericks – the only independent baseball team in America in 1973, when it was set up by Bonanza actor, and father of Kurt, Bing Russell. Many of the players for the team were rejected or retired from Major League baseball, but their independent team proved naysayers wrong by smashing attendance records and launching careers. Kurt Russell himself became a player and Vice-President of the team, while the career...

Before anyone thought of The Bad News Bears, Slapshot, and Major League, there were the Portland Mavericks. In 1973, after professional baseball had abandoned the Oregon city, Hollywood actor Bing Russell — Deputy Clem on Bonanza — jumped at a chance to organize the only independent minor-league team in the country. Facing skepticism from a city that had been hoping for an actual major-league team and starting from scratch without any players, Russell held open tryouts for any has-been or never-will-be. “He put this team together of misfits, a ballclub made up a bunch of crazy individuals,” says Bing’s son, Kurt Russell,...

Yesterday a U.S. circuit judge dismissed a long-running case brought against Google by the Authors Guild for digitally copying more than 20 million books without permission of the writers. The case, which stretches back to 2005, is part of a number of legal entanglements created by Google Books, which included lawsuits from publishers (with whom Google settled last year), photographers, graphic artists, and a former professional baseball player Jim Bouton, whose memoir, Ball Four: The Final Pitch, was among the books scanned. According to a Reuters report, Judge Denny Chin agreed with Google’s argument that making “snippets” of ...

The 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival has just been voted Best Film Festival Ever!……..maybe……if it hasn’t it should because this year’s fest has provided a breathtaking variety of docs, dramas, foreign flix, comedies, shorts, and….you name it!

Sliff.s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University.s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University.s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il

The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.

http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012

Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Friday, November 16th

Alter Egos

Alter Egos plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre – Read The Wamg Review By Dana Jung Here

In the alternative world of Ârdizes an important mission with he discovers his...

With the summer fading and fall colors beginning to appear, America's greatest pasttime gears up for the post-season as the baseball playoffs are just weeks away. And what better way to gear up for the road to the World Series than with a documentary centered on one of the most curious corners of the game: the knuckleball. From directors Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg ("The Devil Came on Horseback," "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work") comes "Knuckleball," a documentary on the slowest, strangest and most unpredictable pitch in the game that only a select few are masters. The doc follows two players -- 37-year-old R.A. Dickey (New York Mets, now a 2012 All-Star) and 18-year veteran Tim Wakefield (now retired) -- chronicling their ups and downs during the 2011 season. The film also catches up with five living retired knuckleballers: Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, Charlie Hough, Wilbur Wood, Jim Bouton and Tom Candiotti.

Mets pitcher R.A. Dickey arrived to Saturday’s Knuckleball! premiere event at downtown Manhattan’s World Financial Center Plaza straight from Citi Field and a win over the San Francisco Giants. Gazing at the photographers and film reporters encroaching on his personal space, he didn’t hesitate in answering EW’s first question: What’s harder — beating the Giants or doing all this Tribeca Film Festival press? “This,” he said with a laugh. “Well, maybe it’s not harder, but it’s certainly overwhelming.” He smiled. “But it’s exciting! The film is beautiful and I think it captures...

How do you catch a knuckleball? is a question that has baffled major league backstops for decades. Wise old Bob Uecker seemed to have the best philosophy: “Wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”

The most enigmatic of pitches, the knuckleball is one of baseball’s great lost arts. Even when it’s working best, the pitcher really has no idea where it’s going. It darts, it flutters, it sinks. It taunts a hitter — just sitting there begging to be smashed, and then it’s gone again. Though it’s always been a rare pitch mastered...

“A book so deep in the American vein, so deep in fact that it is by no means a sports book.” – David Halberstam, on Ball Four As the 2012 baseball season opens, the time seems right to revisit Ball Four, a chronicle of a season that, for its author, was a time of reflection and hoped-for rebirth—as is the start of any season for athletes and fans. Back in 1969, Jim Bouton wasn’t trying to change the world; he was simply trying to keep a diary of his season. Once a promising right-hander for the Mantle-era Yankees, Bouton injured...

Photo: Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures There's a great line in Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four." About one third of the way through the iconic baseball tome Bouton is running in the outfield with a kid recently called up to the big leagues for the first time. The youngster turns to the aging vet and says something to the effect that it really does tingle when you finally make it to the big leagues. Later that day in front of his locker, Bouton reflects on what the kid said. He tells the reader that after all his years in the majors, "I sometimes forget to tingle."

Hollywood often forgets as well.

Last week, one of the biggest events in history took place when the Egyptian people overthrew Hosni Mubarak after 30 years of a brutal dictatorship. It was a refreshing and stunning event.

One of the most fascinating aspects to me...

How you regard Geraldo Rivera depends heavily on how old you are. Viewers from the 1970s might recognize his award-winning contributions to ABC’s hard-hitting news programs. A decade later, he was infamous for Al Capone’s empty vault and his broken nose from a gutter-dwelling talk-show that helped usher in an era of trash-television. Nothing if not resilient, Rivera recovered to become a cable-news fixture during the O.J. Simpson trials and the Clinton impeachment, and today, he’s the host of Geraldo at Large and a frequent contributor to Fox News’ programs. For 40 years, virtually the only thing that...

Supporting actors aren't just those familiar faces who can steal a film. They show a way for movies to portray real life

Do you remember the film Iris? Directed by Richard Eyre, it opened in 2001, and was about the marriage between novelist Iris Murdoch, and her husband, the literary professor John Bayley. I have not seen the picture since it opened and as I try to recall it, I see three faces – Judi Dench and Kate Winslet (they played the older Iris and the younger woman), and Jim Broadbent – who was Bayley in his mature years. I think of it as a tripartite film, yet I know there was a fourth corner and a fourth actor – the young Bayley. I hope he will forgive me, but I have to check his name – of course, it was Hugh Bonneville.

Having looked the film up, here is what surprises me: Dench was nominated for best actress,...

After kicking off the 2010 Pajiba Neo-Noir Retrospective with an analysis of Paul Thomas Anderson's Hard Eight (1996), I felt the strong desire to put his film in dialogue with the neo-noir of his mentor Robert Altman: The Long Goodbye (1973). Oddly, this comparison yielded more differences than similarities, as Anderson's film came off as classical in its use of noir tropes: former hood seeks the good life only to find his new life upended by the inescapable past of his horrific deeds. Admittedly, Anderson tells the rather conventional thriller story unconventionally by favoring the minimalist approach of French noir director Jean-Pierre Melville over the direct approach taken by the bulk of Hollywood cinema. Yet, in the end, and I don't intend for this line of thought to be a criticism, Hard Eight feels more like a classical noir than neo-noir, as the themes of the genre remain intact and have...