Hollywood film executive and classic movie champion Michael Schlesinger died this morning, January 9, at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 74.
Catherine Dickerson, his longtime friend and caregiver, revealed his passing on social media.
Schlesinger worked at Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures before producing his own work. During his time at Paramount, he supported the 1993 documentary It’s All True: Based on an Unfinished Film By Orson Welles.
Friend and film historian Joseph McBride recalled that Schlesinger was in charge of the Paramount film library, which included footage from Welles’ time at RKO Pictures.
“Mike told me that when the brass finally saw the film, they were so horrified that two guards wearing guns showed up in Mike’s office to escort him (permanently) off the lot,” McBride recalled. “I asked Mike what the executives objected to, and he said they had not realized that (1) half the film was silent and (2) it was about poor fishermen, people of color. That’s Hollywood for you, still – as Stepin Fetchit told me – ‘more segregated than Georgia under the skin’.”
Schlesinger at one point had tried to interest Paramount in completing The Other Side of the Wind. He also scoured the vaults at Sony Pictures for cut footage from The Lady from Shanghai when he was a vice president there, according to McBride.
“Mike was a true mensch. Every cinephile had a friend in Mike Schlesinger,” McBride said. “He was passionate about preserving and distributing classic films. He stuck his neck out for film history while working for major studios that didn’t always appreciate what he did, but he was a driving force in getting Hollywood to better value its legacy. He went to bat for Orson Welles and other filmmakers whose work was ill-treated or undervalued by studios. Above all, Mike was a kind and funny guy who was loved by everyone who knew him. Mike was such a warm human being whose wit was acute without being nasty toward people. He was a strong social critic with a liberal heart and a strong embrace of the good side of humanity. I will miss his wit and wisdom.”
Director Joe Dante had visited with Schlesinger during the holidays.
“I saw him at Christmas and New Year’s in the hospital,” Dante said. “He was very weak. But not enough to keep him from wailing that the nursing staff never heard of the Three Stooges!”
Schlesinger’s favorite movies were It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, for which he did an audio commentary, and Sh! The Octopus. He did other audio commentaries for such films as the Wilder-Diamond One, Two, Three and The Front Page. He assisted with Cinecon, a long-running classic film festival in Los Angeles. Schlesinger was a producer and director, known for The Adventures of Biffle and Shooster, Bride of Finklestein and Schmo Boat.
Heartfelt tributes to the Dayton, Ohio, native from film lovers can be found on X (formerly Twitter ) and such blogs as News from Me and BookSteve’s Library.
Schlesinger once remarked, “People think I live in the past. No, I live in the present. I just vacation in the past.”
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