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Michael Schultz
Schultz in 1957
Born	(1938-11-10) November 10, 1938 (age 86) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Film director, theater director, film producer
Years active	1968–present
Spouse	Lauren Jones ​(m. 1965)​ (two children)

Michael Schultz (born November 10, 1938) is an American director and producer of theater, film and television.

Life and career

Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of an African-American mother Katherine Frances Leslie (1917–1995), and Leo Albert Schultz (1913–2001), an insurance salesman of German descent. Shortly before his birth his parents married in Iowa, where both were listed as black on their marriage license. Mr. Schultz's occupation was listed as "Musician" at the time of his marriage.

Michael Schultz, who was known as "Mike" growing up, attended Riverside High School in Milwaukee, where he was a very active student. He played baseball, football and participated in student theater productions.

After his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Marquette University, he attended Princeton University, where in 1966 he directed his first play, a production of Waiting for Godot. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in 1968, which brought him to Broadway in 1969. His breakthrough was directing Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which he restaged for television in 1972.

Schultz' earlier film projects combined low comedy with profound social comment (Honeybaby, Honeybaby and Cooley High), reaching a peak with the ensemble comedy Car Wash (1976) and Which Way Is Up? (1977), starring Richard Pryor.

In 1978, Schultz took the reins of the musical Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with the largest budget entrusted to an African-American film director to that date. However, upon its release, the project was a commercial and critical failure. Schultz made the ensemble comedy Scavenger Hunt (1979), Denzel Washington's film debut Carbon Copy (1981), and the screwball comedy Disorderlies (1987). On July 23, 1986, Michael Schultz formed his own production company Crystalite Productions, with his wife Gloria Schultz, and wanted to start producing three features in development.

More recently, Schultz has worked in television, piloting episodes of such style-conscious series as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Picket Fences as well as an abundance of TV movies.

In 1991, Schultz was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Personal life

Schultz married Gloria Jones in Brooklyn, New York in 1965. As an actress, his wife is known professionally as Lauren Jones; in non-acting capacities, she is known as Gloria Schultz. The couple has two children.

Filmography

References

1. "Michael A. Schultz Biography (1938–)". Film Reference. November 10, 1938. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
2. "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (Katherine Frances Leslie)". United States: The Generations Network. 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
3. "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 (Leo Albert Schultz)". United States: The Generations Network. 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
4. "Iowa Marriage Records, 1880-1940, marriage of Leo Schultz and Katherine Leslie". United States: The Generations Network. October 18, 1938. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
5. "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 (Riverside High School)". Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Generations Network. 1957. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
6. Saxon Silverman, Marie (July 23, 1986). "Schultz Forms Own Prod. Co.; Three Features In Development". Variety. p. 9.
7. "Jet". Johnson Publishing Company. March 25, 1991. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
8. "New York, New York Marriage License Index, 1907-2018, marriage of Michael Schultz and Gloria Jones". United States: The Generations Network. 1965. Retrieved January 8, 2020.

External links

• Michael Schultz at the Internet Broadway Database
• Michael Schultz at IMDb

• 1938 births
• African-American film directors
• African-American film producers
• African-American television directors
• American people of German descent
• American television directors
• American television producers
• American theatre directors
• Drama Desk Award winners
• Film directors from Wisconsin
• Living people
• Artists from Milwaukee
• University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
• Film producers from Wisconsin
• 21st-century African-American people
• 20th-century African-American people