Actor/comic Dick Shawn was #BornOnThisDay, Dec. 1, 1923. Remembered in films as "Sylvester" in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) & as the hippie/actor in The Producers (1968). Passed in 1987 (age 63) #heart-attack, collapsing face-down,while performing on stage. #RIP #GoneTooSoon

Dick Shawn

{snip}

Death

On April 17, 1987, during a performance at University of California, San Diego's Mandeville Hall, Shawn suffered a heart attack and collapsed face-down on the stage. The audience initially assumed that it was part of his act. After he had remained motionless for several minutes, a stage hand examined him and asked if a physician was present.

After CPR had been initiated, the audience was asked to leave the auditorium. Most in attendance remained, assuming that it was part of Shawn's act, and only began leaving after paramedics arrived. A notice in the following day's San Diego Union newspaper announced that Shawn had died during the performance at the age of 63. Shawn was interred at Hillside Memorial Park, a Jewish cemetery in Culver City, California.

{snip}