Guitarist Mike Schank, who was the subject of Chris Smith and Sarah Price’s beloved 1999 documentary American Movie, has died. Schank passed away on the morning of Thursday, Oct. 13 “in his mother’s arms,” a friend confirmed to Milwaukee Record. Schank was 56. The musician and actor’s cause of death was not disclosed, though his passing came after he announced over the summer that he was diagnosed with “a rare type of cancer” that began in his esophagus and spread to his “liver and lungs and a bunch of other places in my body. It’s stage 4 and they can’t cure it.”
Schank had reportedly been undergoing cancer treatment, with his friend Jackie Bogenberger telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “they kept doing all these tests to try to figure out what kind, but in the end just decided it was super rare.” Bogenberger explained that “it spread quickly everywhere throughout his body in a matter of weeks, touching almost everything except his brain. He did some chemo and radiation.” Schank, who earlier this year celebrated 27 years of sobriety, remained “one of the most kind and selfless human beings this earth was ever blessed with,” Bogenberger said.
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Schank was a beloved musician in the Milwaukee area known to be a gifted screamer. He was perhaps best known, though, for his appearance in American Movie. The film follows Borchardt as he attempted to film his troubled short film Coven, with Schank serving as musician, extra, and assistant director, among other roles. The documentary shot Schank to national notoriety, and he went on to appear in the 2001 film Storytelling from Todd Solendz, 2014’s Hamlet A.D.D., a cut part, which later made it into in the special features, in Jason X, and even a cameo as himself on an episode of Family Guy in 2006.
Amid his rise to fame, Schank continued to reside in Milwaukee. In an interview in 2012, the musician revealed that he and Borchardt were still close friends and talked daily. According to the Milwaukee Record, Schank was a key member of the MKE Alano Club, a sobriety and recovery club in the city.
News of Schank’s passing was met with an outpouring of tributes. Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood remembered Schank as a “legend,” with Baby Driver and Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright tweeting, “RIP Mike Schank, the sweet funny soul at the heart of the extraordinary doc ‘American Movie.’ Me, Simon & Nick were obsessed with it and since they included Mike’s home number on the DVD extras, we called him from London one night. If you’ve never seen it, please do immediately.”
