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He's the guy who’s had South Africans in stitches over the decades, sending people up and ripping everyone off in a series of no-holds-barred movies.
But the Leon Schuster of today isn’t finding anything to laugh about. He’s spending his days in bed, swathed in layers of blankets.
Deep furrows are carved into his face and as he tries to sit up he clenches his jaw and lets out a groan. He’s in agony, the 72-year-old veteran entertainer says. “I’ve been through a rough patch, man, through absolute hell,” he tells YOU.
“I’m a bit depressed. This thing has been going on too long – it’s almost 10 months since my first back surgery.”
His ordeal began last August when he went under the knife after injuring himself on the set of one of his movies.
He’d been recovering well until he had a fall that required a second surgery and more recovery. Then complications arose and he’s been confined to bed for weeks ever since.
Leon is scheduled to have another operation – which he hopes will fix things once and for all – but first he has to shed 15kg to make sure he’s in the best shape possible to avoid complications.
Despite his physical problems his spirit remains unbroken. Leon, who relies on a walking stick when he needs to get up, is determined to recover and get to doing what he loves most: making films.
“I’m not in a good place, I’ll be honest with you,” he says. “But I’m in a grateful place. And that’s why I try to lie here in a straight position and keep my spirits up with a bit of light-heartedness.
“I trust in the Lord and the doctors – these are my two sources of strength from which I draw my hope.”
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Leon's walking stick is in a corner of his room when we visit him at his home in Randburg, Johannesburg. A handful of pain pills lies next to him on the bedside table.
He’s had trouble with his back for many years, he says, but the pain intensified in recent years.
“You could say it’s been coming for 20 years but I just never paid attention to it. Life goes on, man – you have a bit of back pain then you take two Panados and then you’re as good as new.”
Leon knew he needed more than just painkillers when he fell off a pickup truck during the filming of Mr Bones 3: Son of Bones last year.
He had surgery and then went to a rehab facility to learn to walk again – but then something happened that would set his recovery back severely.
“I got up confused and wanted to go to the toilet but I had no idea where I was,” he recalls. “I got up, wet my pants, stepped in the urine and fell on my back.
“Then I felt tremendous pain. I felt as if they could cut off my back and give the bones to the dogs. I just lay there and screamed.”
Back to hospital he went and tests revealed vertebrae damage. “From then on everything went downhill,” he says.
At one point he says he was so frustrated he told the doctors to “just take everything out, because I felt everything was causing me problems.
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“The doctors told me a spinal nerve in my vertebra had broken halfway. If it’d completely broken, I would’ve been paralysed for the rest of my life. The doctors managed to fix it but also warned if I fell again there would be no turning back.”
Back home he continued with exercises he’d been taught in rehab but it wasn’t long before he felt something wasn’t right. “I went to another doctor and he confirmed there was a screw loose in my lower back.”
Doctors had inserted metal screws to fix the fractured nerve. “The loose screw was pressing against the nerve. And all that was left was the unforgettable pain,” he says.
Leon needs another spinal surgery and doctors plan to perform it by going in through his abdomen, a procedure known as the anterior approach, which allows surgeons better access to the front of the spine. Leon is now on a two-month diet to help him lose weight.
“The doctor told me he can only take away 50% of my pain. It’s a very delicate operation and if any mistake is made, it can have severe consequences. Now I lie awake worrying whether I’ll survive, whether I’ll make it.”
His faith, however, is greater than his concerns. “If I have to go, I know I’m going to heaven. That’s my faith, as my mother taught me,” he says.
Leon misses his life before all the surgeries. “I used to be an active guy. I was in the gym, played rugby with the kids, swam and played tennis. I did everything. And then all these activities stopped with a messed-up back.”
Everything is difficult for him – standing up, walking and even sitting down. “I walk with a cane, but I walk bent forward. I have this crooked step that I call the baboon shuffle,” he quips.
He’s thankful for the support of his children, Lelani (42), Leande (41) and twins Ernest and Shelley (35), as well as his housekeeper, Rose Skhosana (67).
“Rose, who’s been so good to me over the years, helps me tremendously. She’s the one who puts on my socks and helps me with daily tasks. But sometimes it really gets to you knowing you can’t even do such simple things.”
He’s so focused on his recovery that work has been put on hold for now. “At the moment I’m not at all creative. My thoughts can’t allow creativity because when my body is in pain, my spirit is down,” he says.
“It sometimes makes me angry, because throughout my career I’ve done 80% of my own stunts. I was only afraid of heights but I’ve dived into dirty rivers and fallen off boats. All that stuff was part of my life.”
He isn’t giving up on a return to work, though. “Look at Clint Eastwood – that guy is 93 years old and still directs movies. I don’t necessarily want to work as long as that but I’d still like to write songs and I have such good ideas for screenplays,” he says.
Though he isn’t as active as he’d like to be he still has some pep in his step. “I feel quite young and I have many ideas. It’s in my nature. My stuff was always comedic but I don’t think people know what a serious actor I can be.
“So I hope the Lord will give me enough breath to show this side to people. That He will give me enough breath to make my dream movie, a deep movie with a Christian message.”
