Julius Schwartz
Julius "Julie" Schwartz (/ʃwɔːrts/; June 19, 1915 – February 8, 2004) was an American comic book editor, and a science fiction agent. He was born in The Bronx, New York. He is best known as a longtime editor at DC Comics, where at various times he was primary editor over the company's flagship superheroes, Superman and Batman.
"Julie Schwartz" redirects here. For the American rabbi, see Julie Schwartz (rabbi).He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1996 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1997.
Early life[edit]
Born on June 19, 1915, to Romanian-Jewish parents Joseph and Bertha[2] who emigrated from a small town outside Bucharest, Romania. Julius and his parents resided at 817 Cauldwell Avenue in the Bronx. He graduated at age seventeen from Theodore Roosevelt High School in The Bronx.
Personal life[edit]
In 1952, Schwartz married Jean Ordwein who had been his secretary. She died in 1986 from emphysema. Schwartz's relationship with Jean had been particularly close, and he never remarried or dated following her death. Not many years later, Schwartz's stepdaughter Jeanne (Jean's daughter from a previous marriage) died from the same illness.
Schwartz died at the age of 88, after being hospitalized for pneumonia. He was survived by his son-in-law, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He remained a "goodwill ambassador" for DC Comics and an Editor Emeritus up until his death.[21]
Following his death, a number of women came forward alleging that Schwartz had behaved inappropriately with them.[22][23][24][25] These included Jo Duffy,[26] Jill Thompson,[26] and Colleen Doran, who stated that he had attempted to fondle her in a limousine when she was an aspiring artist in her teens.[27]
In 1998, Dragon*Con chairman Ed Kramer established the Julie Award, bestowed for universal achievement spanning multiple genres and selected each year by a panel of industry professionals.[28][29] The inaugural recipient was science-fiction and fantasy Grand Master Ray Bradbury.[28] Additional awards, presented by Schwartz each year, included Forrest J. Ackerman, Yoshitaka Amano, Alice Cooper, Will Eisner, Harlan Ellison, Neil Gaiman, Carmine Infantino, Anne McCaffrey, Peter David, Jim Steranko, and Micky Dolenz.[28]
In addition to his induction into both of the comic-book industry's halls of fame, Schwartz received a great deal of other recognition over the course of his career, including:
Schwartz has appeared as himself in a number of comics: