Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce married Honey Harlow, a stripper, in 1951 and they lived in Baltimore for a brief time. They had a daughter, Kitty Bruce, in 1955.

He was later rumored to be in an affair with Annie Ross, a jazz vocalist. This caused the divorce between Honey and Bruce in 1959. He later dated Faye Dunaway, the actress, during the 1960s.

He was found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home on August 3, 1966. He died of morphine poisoning owing to an accidental overdose. He was buried at the Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California. Over 500 people attended his funeral.

Lenny Bruce was born as Leonard Alfred Schneider on October 13, 1925 to Sally Marr and Myron Schneider in Mineola, New York. His mother was a stage performer and he was influenced by her. His parents divorced when he was young, and he lived with different relatives afterwards.

He grew up near Bellmore and attended the Wellington C. Mepham High School. He later started working on a farm and finally joined the United States Navy when he was 16. He was posted in several places during the Second World War and often performed comedy sketches for his shipmates.

In one of his performances, he was dressed in drag, leading to the suspicion that he was homosexual. He was then asked to leave with a Dishonorable Discharge in 1945. He contested this claim and changed the discharge notice to ‘Under Honorable Conditions’.

Leonard Alfred Schneider decided to establish a career for himself as a comedian in New York City. He began by taking the name ‘Lenny Marsalle’ at the Victory Club; he later changed his last name to ‘Bruce’ in 1947 for his first stand-up performance in Brooklyn. His mother helped him get on stage and perform.

In 1949, he participated and won in the contest for aspiring performers on ‘Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts’ and this brief attention ensured his path and he worked as a traveling comedian. He started touring the state and performing along with his wife, at times.

He also wrote screenplays early in his career from 1952 to 1954, including ‘Dance Hall Racket’, ‘Dream Follies’, and a children’s film ‘The Rocket Man’.

He next released four albums with Fantasy Records that included his comedy sketches, commentary, interviews laced with satire on topics like moral philosophy, abortion, drugs, the Ku Klux Klan, and Jewishness. These were later integrated and rereleased as The Lenny Bruce Originals.

Due to his controversial material and being labeled as a ‘sick comic’, he was blacklisted from television and lost many of his gigs. His jokes were considered offensive and had to generally be preapproved by the network. His performances began to dwindle as legal troubles increased and he was repeatedly given notices.

His most famous show took place on February 4, 1961 at Carnegie Hall. He performed in front of a full house and his biographer called this ‘the greatest performance of his career’. The show winded at two in the morning and included his takes on the Ku Klux Klan and JFK, among others.