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April 30, 2006
[an error occurred while processing this directive] Famed local writer dies at age 81The Southern Oregon writing and theater communities lost a beloved member Saturday when S.S. "Paddy" Schweitzer died at Ashland Community Hospital. Schweitzer, 81, of Talent, had been battling illness. He was surrounded by friends at the end. "He went out very peacefully," said producer Tom Monson, with whom Schweitzer had worked on several films. Funeral arrangements will be announced. Schweitzer was born on St. Patrick's Day hence the nickname in 1925 outside New York City. A Jew, he attended private schools and entered Yale University at age 16 at a time when the number of Jews admitted was limited by a quota. He saw combat in the Pacific as a 20-year-old ensign in the U.S. Navy late in World War II. After the war he lived in New York, where he wrote numerous scripts in the days of live television plays. He later wrote for such television shows as "General Electric Theater," "Baretta," "The Love Boat" and "Bonanza." His films included 1970's "A Clear and Present Danger," 1978's "The Deerslayer" and 1981's "The Adventures of Nellie Bly." "Dirt," a 1979 film about off-road racing, became something of a cult classic. He co-wrote Elvis Presley's last dramatic picture, the socially conscious "Change of Habit" 1969, with Presley as a ghetto doctor and Mary Tyler Moore as a nun. "I liked Elvis," Schweitzer said later. "He was on the set on time and he knew his lines." "Ebenezer Who?" which was produced at Oregon Stage Works for the 2005 holiday season, was his first produced play. Two earlier scripts were optioned by Broadway producers but never presented. "Ebenezer Who?" is a comedy about a small-town theater putting on its annual Dickens production for the holidays. In 1961, in Los Angeles, he married Margaret Anne Hecht, a writer and producer who used the pen name Brian. The couple lived in Los Angeles, Malibu and Inverness, Calif. They began attending plays at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland in the 1970s and moved to the Rogue Valley in 1991, living in Ashland and later in Talent. Schweitzer was preceded in death by his wife, who died Dec. 16. He is survived by two sons. When Actors Theatre Artistic Director Peter Alzado left that theater, of which Schweitzer was a board member, the idea for what would become Ashland's Oregon Stage Works was born in a get-together at Schweitzer and Hecht's living room. Schweitzer conducted an online writing course and was a mentor to younger writers, often reading scripts and offering suggestions. He had been working on a screenplay for a World War II epic and had said he planned some revisions to "Ebenezer Who?" He was remembered by friends as a man with a quick intelligence, a keen wit and strong passions. "He was cognizant of the frailties of the human condition," Monson said. "If he didn't like something, you knew it. If you were lucky enough to be his friend, you had a real friend." Longtime friend and fellow screenwriter Creighton Barnes of Ashland said Schweitzer was a man of compassion. "He had great empathy for people who wanted to write. He was very generous," Barnes said. "He had a great heart." Monson asked Schweitzer the day before he died how many pages of a new script he could expect. Schweitzer grinned and held up three fingers. "He loved his friends," Monson says. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail bvarble@mailtribune.com. |
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