His Fucking Life Story
His real name is Leonard Alfred Schneider. Born October 13, 1925, Lenny's birthday would often fall on an unlucky holiday. His parents were working class and Jewish. As a child, he spent a great deal of time with his grandparents and older adults. He was treated like an adult at an early age. Additionally, he learned the value of a dollar when he set out to try and make it on his own after high school by working at a local cabaret night club. His primary responsibility was to entertain the crowd between dance routines. It was there that he honed in and developed his comic timing and bits. At first he would do traditional one liners and set up jokes. Then, he developed an improvisational style which would scatter around different subjects in the news. He married one of the dancers, Honey, Harlowe Bruce. They had a daughter, Kitty Bruce and moved into a nice suburban house with Bruce's royalties from his first comedy album. Lenny and Honey were divorced after his heroin habit became too much of a conflict between the couple. Lenny was found dead of an accidental overdose on August 3, 1966. His legacy in the entertainment world has yet to be forgotten.
Meredith Hebenstreit
Copyright © 2001 by University of North Texas.
All rights reserved.
Revised: 03 Sep 2001 11:59:50 -0500
Lenny and Honey
Lenny and His Daughter, Kitty Bruce
Lenny's Home
Lenny and Kitty
Lenny's body after his overdose
Digital Bibliography
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Bruce Index