Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Second City co-owner Len Stuart, whose seed money helped create “SCTV,” has died, according to Andrew Alexander, CEO and executive producer of the comedy and improv institution.
The Emmy-winning Mr. Stuart, who co-chaired the company, was “a brilliant entrepreneur,” Alexander announced in a posting on Second City’s website.
The cause was liver cancer. Mr. Stuart, 73, was semi-retired and living in Nassau, Bahamas, Alexander said. He died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“SCTV,” which aired from 1976-1981, helped launch the careers of John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, Joe Flaherty, Harold Ramis, Martin Short and Dave Thomas, among others.
In the mid-1980s, Mr. Stuart and Alexander bought the Second City from co-founder Bernie Sahlins.
“Over the course of four decades, Len has helped support the company through many defining challenges, including the most critical initial financing of the first seven episodes of ‘SCTV,’ ” Alexander said. “185 episodes later, ‘SCTV’ went on to become a seminal TV show garnering 13 Emmy nominations and winning two. Len was thrilled with the current expansion of the Chicago Second City Training Center and The Harold Ramis Film School and recognized the importance that this initiative would mean to young actors and future filmmakers.”
By Maureen O’Donnell for http://chicago.suntimes.com.
Photo: Len Stuart.
2016-02-22
Chicago: Second City co-owner Len Stuart dies at age 73