Lenny Bruce
(October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966)
Lenny Bruce, born as Leonard Alfred Schneider, is best known for his controversial standup comedy, which he was arrested for numerous times. He, also, wrote two books: Stamp Help Out! and How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. Lenny Bruce enlisted in the Navy in 1942, but was discharged when he convinced psychologists that he was experimenting with homosexual urges. He married a redheaded stripper named Honey Harlow in 1951, but they divorced five years later.
Lenny Bruce was arrested and later found not guilty of obscenity charges in 1961 following an appearance in San Francisco at the Jazz Workshop. Later in 1964 he was arrested again for obscenity charges in New York City.
He is listed as the #3 comic in Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time and has been an inspiration for countless comedians. He died in Hollywood, California of a drug overdose and many of his contemporaries would agree with a comment poster soon after in Playboy magazine:
One last four-letter word concerning Lenny Bruce: Dead. At forty. That's obscene!
