It’s a Sad, Sad, Sad, Sad World — Beloved Repertory Executive Michael Schlesinger Dies at 74

Friends will tell you Michael Schlesinger’s biggest passion among his many movie loves was for Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” or as he called it, “THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE.” But fortunately for cinephiles, his efforts elevated or brought about many important films during his career at United Artists Classics, Paramount, and Sony Repertory.

He died January 9, 2025 in Los Angeles at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where he was being treated for a rare and aggressive form of cancer only recently diagnosed. Though he was a behind-the-scenes executive little known by the public, he made a big impact professionally before he retired in 2012. He then began another career as a director, initially of comedy shorts, then last year with his feature debut “Rock and Doris (Try to) Write a Movie,” which premiered at the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival.

His passing has brought out an outpouring of grief and remembrances, best seen on Facebook, from friends, many of whom shared his passion for movie comedy and classic Hollywood films, but all of whom remember a vibrant, vocal, and enthusiastic personality. His close friends ranged from directors like Joe Dante (“Gremlins”), film curators and restoration professionals, writers, and others with a common thread: a passion for classic studio films, often via a shared enthusiasm for films ranging from the classics to forgotten B-movies like “Sh! The Octopus,” a 56-minute Warner Bros. comedy from 1937 now available on DVD in no small part because he championed it.

Michael Schlesinger was born in September 1950 in Dayton, Ohio. His interest in films included not just comedies but the vintage monster movies, shorts (especially the Three Stooges and Looney Tunes cartoons), and more.

After graduating from Ohio State University in 1972, with a long-term goal of a creative film career, he initially worked in Cincinnati for independent regional distributor Tri-State Theaters. During this period, he co-partnered in a local repertory theater and hosted classic movies on a TV station.

‘The Manchurian Candidate’Courtesy Everett Collection

Though his move to Los Angeles was intended to spark a creative career, his extensive knowledge of film led to a job with United Artists Classics in their repertory film division. (In the 1970s, all studios had divisions that oversaw distribution of older titles, both 35mm and 16mm, including theatrical.) One key project he was involved in was the 1988 theatrical reissue (with new prints) of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 “The Manchurian Candidate.”

At the behest of then Paramount Pictures Distribution head Jeff Blake, he then moved to that studio. After championing a successful 50th anniversary release of “Citizen Kane,” a group of filmmakers trying to restore Orson Welles’ partially completed “It’s All True” sought out Paramount, which then owned the rights to the remaining footage, for help in restoring. He finessed this over the objections of some dubious executives (Blake had left for Sony) and though the complete films won acclaim and awards, it cost him his job there.

Blake then brought him to Sony, where he flourished with a freer hand. His oversight included a 70mm restoration of “Lawrence of Arabia,” the unlikely studio release of the low-budget horror homage “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra,” and the U.S. version of “Godzilla 2000” (he personally supervised the dubbing) which grossed $10 million in wide domestic release. His friendship with the late director Budd Boetticher made his involved with the release of his classic 1950s Westerns on home video a labor of love.

After retiring, he only beame more active. Frequently doing voice commentaries for DVD, he also directed and wrote a series of self-produced comedy shorts before his feature debut last year.

For over 50 years he was a major figure at classic film festivals Cinevent in Columbus and Cinecon in Los Angeles. All the while, he delighted in real friendships with film figures, often veteran and sometimes forgotten, who he featured in his social media.

Michael Schlesinger with Young Frankenstein (Perry Shields), make up by Nicole Goulet and Shelby LitrovCourtesy of Deverill Weeks

Memorial plans will be announced at a future date.

A resident of the Sherman Oaks neighborhood in Los Angeles, Michael leaves no immediate survivors, but a wealth of friends some of whose tributes are reprinted below:

“A mensch for all seasons.”
– Larry Jackson (executive, producer – “Bugs Bunny Superstar”)

 “He was a true soldier of the cinema and such a *happy* warrior it’s been hard to imagine him confused or in pain or, now, gone. Movie-lovers owe him a ton—the re-release of ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ and the expanded ‘Major Dundee’ to name just two milestones he made possible, though he rarely took credit for them. A huge loss.”
– Michael Sragow (critic)

“I hardly knew him but I enjoyed the hell out of him. So witty and fun to read. And he knew so much about the movies. When someone like Mike dies a lot of film history dies with him. People just don’t have that kind of knowledge anymore, let alone the love of film that he had. He’d become a necessary regular source of pleasure and info for me on FB and it’s terribly sad that he’s gone.”
– Tim Hunter (director – “River’s Edge”)

“One of my oldest and dearest. And one of the reasons I’m still on Facebook. Indeed a mensch. We regularly traded our favorite closed caption errors. And I LOVED his puns. One of the few movie-mad guys who also appreciated live theater.”
– Meredith Brody (writer and critic)

“The original movie kid Mike Schlesinger has sadly left the building. He is undoubtedly seated in the front row of the big theater in the sky preparing to watch IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.”
– Alan K. Rode (historian and author, “Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film”)

“Whenever I had a book signing, Michael would show up. I would have been happy to give him a signed copy. He always insisted in buying. That’s the type of guy he was.”
– Scott Eyman (historian and author, “Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart,” himself A friend of Michael’s for more than 50 years)