Upper St. Clair alum’s showbiz career spans from ‘Last House’ to The Comedy Store

With “A Nightmare on Elm Street” director Wes Craven making his feature-film debut and future “Friday the 13th” creator Sean Cunningham handling production duties, “Last House” shocked audiences and angered movie critics with its graphic portrayal of violence.

A gritty tale of two teenage girls who are kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a gang of ruthless criminals loosely based on Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning 1960 film “The Virgin Spring,” Sheffler acts in “Last House on the Left” as Junior Stillo, the heroin-addicted son of gang leader Krug (David Hess) who exploits his son’s dependency to keep him involved in a life of crime.

Sheffler credits his time learning “an extraordinary amount of stage skills and acting skills” at Pittsburgh Playhouse and the Pittsburgh Ballet Company – where he was a part of the original company with founder Nicolas Petrov – with leading him into the role.

“A teacher at the playhouse said to me, ‘Go to New York. Just go. You’ll be fine.’ And I did. And that led to ‘Last House,’” Sheffler says.

But before Sheffler became a part of horror film history, he found work as a stage manager at the Raleigh Hotel in the Catskill Mountains and a road manager for comedian London Lee, culminating in two weeks at the Copacabana nightclub. He also performed stand-up comedy at The Improv while living in New York City.

“I developed performing legs early on and I was fearless,” Sheffler recalls.

After finding representation from Lloyd Greenfield Management, a firm that included Tom Jones and Englebert Humperdink among their clients, Sheffler was called in for a movie audition for “Last House on the Left.” After reading a scene for Craven and Cunningham, Sheffler got the word that he had been cast in the film by the time he made it back to the Greenfield office.

While “Last House” is known for its gritty and unflinchingly realistic portrayal of violence, Sheffler says the production was not as scary or terrible as many would expect from the film’s reputation.

“People want me to say that it, ‘Oh, it was terrible and it was hard and grueling and guerrilla film-making,’” Sheffler says, “but I didn’t know what any of that was. It was fun. I had a blast.”

However, Sheffler does admit that some of the film’s more intense scenes – especially a scene in the film’s climax where his character is coerced into committing suicide when he stands up to his father’s violent tendencies – was a “more involved process.”

“That was trippy,” he says. “I could tell that this was a different moment than just running through the woods and yelling at people.”

The scene was so intense that Sheffler’s father could not watch it, despite watching the rest of “Last House” at its Pittsburgh premiere at the Stanley Theater along with many other members of his family that reacted to the film’s content “about how you would expect.”

“Some of the older conservative relatives were saying, ‘What are you doing? Is this a future?’” Sheffler says. “And younger cousins who were my peers, they were going ‘Yeah, go ahead! This is pretty cool!’”

As the film gained press coverage and attention, Sheffler would even be recognized as Junior from “Last House,” especially when he would be hanging out with his co-star David Hess.

“Wherever Hess and I were, people were staring at us,” Sheffler says.

Despite their turbulent on-screen relationship as father and son, Sheffler and Hess remained friends until Hess’ death in 2011 and would frequently appear at horror conventions along with their fellow cinematic gang members Fred Lincoln and Jeramie Rain. He also reconnected with Craven during an art exhibit based on his film work in Los Angeles shortly before Craven’s death in 2015.

“He just looked at me and laughed and I just looked at him and laughed,” Sheffler recalls of the meeting. “We gave each other a hug and had a 20-minute private conversation about where we are now.”

But Martin Kove, who played a deputy in “Last House” and would go on to play the Cobra Kai sensei in “The Karate Kid,” was a very helpful friend from the production when Sheffler moved to Los Angeles in 1976, a year after Kove made the move to the West coast.

“He came and picked me up in his little Mercedes convertible and he became my ambassador tour guide of Los Angeles,” Sheffler says. “He drove me around and showed me everything he learned in the past year or so.”

What led to Sheffler’s move to LA was learning the rudiments of film-making on the set of “Last House.” While overhearing Craven and Cunningham discussing the film’s script, he realized that he was more interested in the storytelling aspect. After selling the first screenplay he ever wrote, he landed an agent with William Morris and continued on to a career as writer in TV and film.

But he also let his agent know he was interested in returning to stand-up and he was referred to an up-and-coming comedy club called The Comedy Store. The club wouldn’t give him a regular spot, but he was invited to try his act during a Monday night “pot luck” night. After his fourth week of pot luck, Sheffler performed with club owner Mitzi Shore in the audience.

“I did a really, really good set. I said to myself as I was walking off the stage ‘It’s not going to get any better. I’m not going to ever do a better five-minute set on a Monday night here,” Sheffler says.

So, he walked up to Shore’s table, introduced himself and she told him to start calling in to get regular spots where he would find himself in league with rising comedic stars that included Robin Williams, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Richard Pryor. Sheffler’s name appears on the Store’s famed wall of alumni signatures on the outside of the building.

“I am part of that crew,” Sheffler says. “The Comedy Store back then was a comedy laboratory. The people who worked in that comedy laboratory were these crazy little orphan people who, if it weren’t for the Comedy Store, would have no place to go in the world.”

Sheffler has recently returned to stand-up comedy by doing shows in LA at venues with several comedians that he’s met over they years including “That ‘70’s Show” creator Mark Brazill.

“It keeps me funny and it keeps me sane. I don’t really have an agenda,” Sheffler says.

Despite living in California for more than 40 years, Sheffler has not forgotten his Pittsburgh past. He still visits family in Upper St. Clair, including his sister, Kelly Schwimer, and has written a TV pilot that’s currently being shopped around Hollywood that takes place in Pittsburgh in 1964.

“I love Pittsburgh,” Sheffler says. “I don’t distance myself from my roots. I embrace it.”

He has also never forgotten his entertainment industry roots with “Last House on the Left,” a film that continues to live on as new audiences find the film. Just this year, the film was digitally restored and released on a special edition Blu-Ray that includes interviews with Sheffler.

While Sheffler says he at first couldn’t figure out the lasting legacy of “Last House,” speaking to fans at horror conventions that finally gave him the answer.

“An older person, a parent figure, and a younger person, like a child figure, would come to talk to me and I would hear from young women, ‘My dad made me sit down and watch this film. My parents made me watch this movie,’” Sheffler says. “So it seems to me that there is a cross-generational handing off of this film to the next generation from the preceding generation.”