Avery Schreiber - I'm sorry to report that we lost Avery Schreiber on 1/7/2002. Avery was a veteran of stage, tv and film. He started at the famous Goodman Theatre in Chicago. He joined Second City and later started the comedy team of Burns and Schreiber with Jack Burns. They recorded several comedy albums and appeared on many television shows including The Hollywood Palace and Jack Paar. In 1973, they had their own summer comedy series.
Avery was famous as a mainstay in Doritos ads. He would laugh about how he got his friends work in the ads, especially people who needed some income. "We made a lot of money then," he chuckled. He appeared in many television shows. He was a regular on the classic television show, My Mother The Car, starring Jerry Van Dyke. Avery was also a regular guest star on Chico and The Man starring Freddie Prinze and Jack Albertson. Game show buffs will remember him from his many appearences on the Match Game. A year ago, he was critically praised for his performance in "Kabbala" at the Lex Theater in Los Angeles. The show was directed by Stuart Gordon of Reanimator fame.
Avery was recently working on creating a theatrical version of science fiction writer Spider Robinson's
novels involving Calahan's Crosstime Saloon. The show would have been part improvisation, using
Story Theater and the group would act out the story using new and familar characters known in the
Calahan's Crosstime Saloon series.
I knew Avery through his drop-in improvisation workshops. He was a wonderful man
and helped many actors who were lucky enough to meet him. This page used to be a plug for his
workshops, which, he liked to note, included people as varied as the theater of life itself.
Avery Schreiber (1935-2002). One of the good ones.
