Michael Schultz
Directing
- Born
- November 10, 1938 (age 87) · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Katherine Frances (née Leslie), a factory worker, and German American Leo Schultz, an insurance salesman.
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.
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Schultz' earliest 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 ever entrusted to an African-American film director to that date. However, upon its release, the project was a commercial and critical failure. Schultz would go on to make prominent films such as Scavenger Hunt (1979), Carbon Copy (1981), and Disorderlies (1987).
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 made-for-TV movies.
In 1991, Schultz was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
Known for
The Last Dragon
March 22, 1985
Car Wash
October 22, 1976
Cooley High
June 25, 1975
Carbon Copy
August 6, 1981
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
July 21, 1978
Krush Groove
October 25, 1985
Greased Lightning
July 1, 1977
Timestalkers
March 10, 1987
Disorderlies
August 14, 1987
Scavenger Hunt
December 21, 1979
Which Way Is Up?
November 4, 1977
Phat Beach
August 2, 1996
Behind the camera38
- 2004Woman Thou Art Loosed Director
- 2002L.A. Law: The Movie Director
- 2000The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Winds of Change Director
- 2000The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: My First Adventure Director
- 1999The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence Director
- 1999My Last Love Director
- 1998Killers in the House Director
- 1996Phat Beach Executive Producer
- 1996The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father Director
- 1994