Michael Schlesinger, a renowned repertory executive who worked at United Artists Classics, Paramount and Sony Repertory, died Jan. 9. He was 74.
Schlesinger died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a rare form of cancer.
Schlesinger was known for being instrumental in restoring and releasing classic films over multiple decades. While working at Sony Repertory as vice president, he oversaw the 70mm restoration of “Lawrence of Arabia.” When he was at Paramount Pictures Distribution, he worked on the 50th anniversary release of “Citizen Kane,” which included Orson Welles’ famously incomplete “It’s All True.”
Joseph McBride, an author and film historian and friend of Schlesinger’s, wrote in his tribute that “Mike was a true mensch. Every cinephile had a friend in Mike Schlesinger. 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.”
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As a champion of international cinema, Schlesinger also wrote and produced a U.S. version of “Godzilla 2000,” rewriting some of the dialogue to be more intentionally humorous.
In a 2001 interview with Scott Michael Bosco, Schlesinger recalled that: “In redoing some of the dialogue, I felt that maybe if I put some intentional funny things and kept the human stuff on a lighter level, maybe, it wouldn’t seem so laughable when the monsters show up. I think I succeeded to some extent.”
Schlesinger also provided DVD commentaries on a number of classic films over the years, including “Baby Face,” “In The Heat of The Night,” “One, Two, Three,” “Monkey Business,” and “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” his personal favorite movie. Most recently, he provided commentary for the 2019 remake of “Shaft” and “A Haunting in Venice,” which released in 2023.
He also made several of his own films, including “The Adventures of Biffle and Shooster,” “Bride of Finklestein” and “Schmo Boat.” Most recently, his retro feature “Rock and Doris (Try to) Write a Movie,” starring Marilu Henner, world premiered at the Palm Springs International Comedy Festival in 2024.