Jack Gilford
Encyclopedia
Jack Gilford was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

.

Early life

Gilford was born Jacob Aaron Gellman on the lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His parents were Romanian-born
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

 Jewish immigrants Sophie "Susksa" (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Jackness), who owned a restaurant, and Aaron Gellman, a furrier. Gilford was the second of three sons, with an older brother Murray ("Moisha") and a younger brother Nathaniel ("Natie").

Gilford was discovered working in a pharmacy by his mentor Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...

. While working in amateur theater, he competed with other talented youngsters, including a young Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason
Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...

. He started doing imitations and impersonations. His first appearance on film was a short entitled Midnight Melodies where he did his imitations of George Jessel
George Jessel (actor)
George Albert Jessel was an American illustrated song "model," actor, singer, songwriter, and Academy Award-winning movie producer. He was famous in his lifetime as a multitalented comedic entertainer, achieving a level of recognition that transcended his limited roles in movies...

, Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...

 and Harry Langdon
Harry Langdon
Harry Philmore Langdon was an American comedian who appeared in vaudeville, silent films , and talkies. He was briefly partnered with Oliver Hardy.-Life and career:...

. He developed some unique impressions that became his trademarks — most notably, one of "split pea soup coming to a furious boil" using only his face. Other unusual impressions he created were a fluorescent light going on in a dark room, John D. Rockefeller Sr.
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil industrialist, investor, and philanthropist. He was the founder of the Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of...

 imitating Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...

, and impressions of animals.

Career

In 1938, Gilford worked as the master of ceremonies in the first downtown New York integrated nightclub, "Cafe Society". He was a unique blend of the earlier style of the Yiddish theater, Vaudeville and Burlesque and started the tradition of monology such as later comedians Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...

 and Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...

 used.

Gilford won many industry awards. He was nominated for several Tony Awards for best supporting actor as Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....

(1963), and for his role as Herr Schultz in Cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

(1966). He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in (1973) for his role as Phil Green in Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger is a 1973 film about moral conflict in contemporary America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film is directed by John G...

(his co-star Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...

 won for Best Actor).

When Rudolf Bing took over direction of the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

, he wanted to introduce Broadway expertise and glamor to the staid company. He engaged Gilford for the comic speaking role of the tippling jailer Frosch in the operetta Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...

. Loved in the part, Gilford performed it 77 times between 1950 and 1964.

One of Gilford's specialties was pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...

, and this talent was put to good use by director George Abbott
George Abbott
George Francis Abbott was an American theater producer and director, playwright, screenwriter, and film director and producer whose career spanned more than nine decades.-Early years:...

 when he cast Gilford as the silent King Sextimus in Once upon a Mattress (Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

, 1959). Gilford shared the stage with a young Carol Burnett
Carol Burnett
Carol Creighton Burnett is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut...

 in this production, and reprised his performance with her in two separate televised versions of the show, in 1964 and in 1972.

Gilford's career was derailed for a time during the 1950s and the McCarthy Era. He was an activist who campaigned for social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...

, integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...

 and labor unions. He was quite active both socially and politically in left wing causes, as was his wife, actress Madeline Lee Gilford
Madeline Lee Gilford
Madeline Lee Gilford was an American film and stage actress and social activist, who later enjoyed a career as a theatrical producer. Gilford was the widow of actor Jack Gilford, whom she married in 1949...

. Gilford and his wife were implicated for their alleged sympathies by the House Un-American Activities Committee
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities or House Un-American Activities Committee was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security"...

 during the McCarthy Era. Gilford and Madeline were specifically named by choreographer Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins
Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...

 in his testimony
Testimony
In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. All testimonies should be well thought out and truthful. It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on a Bible when taking an oath...

 to the HUAC. Gilford and his wife were called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953. The couple had difficulty finding work during much of the rest of the 1950s due to the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...

. Jack and Madeline often had to borrow money from friends to make ends meet.

Gilford once again found work towards the end of the 1950s and early 1960s with the end of the McCarthy Era. He made his comeback as Hysterium in the 1962 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....

. He co-starred in the play with his close friend, Zero Mostel
Zero Mostel
Samuel Joel “Zero” Mostel was an American actor of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version...

. Ironically, this particular production was also choreographed by Jerome Robbins, who had previously testified against Jack Gilford before the HUAC in 1953.

He managed to become successful mostly through roles on the Broadway stage, such as Drink To Me Only, Romanoff and Juliet, and The Diary of Anne Frank
The Diary of Anne Frank (play)
The Diary of Anne Frank is a stage adaptation of the book The Diary of a Young Girl. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It opened at the Cort Theatre, Broadway, on October 5, 1955, in a production by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Garson Kanin and designed by Boris...

. He later enjoyed success in film and television, as well as a series of nationwide television commercials for Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack is a U.S. brand of snack consisting of strong molasses flavored candy-coated popcorn and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of nominal value inside. Some food historians consider it the first junk food...

. The most memorable of these commercials featured Gilford walking through the sleeping car of a train when he discovers two passengers passing a box of Cracker Jack back and forth between their sleeping compartments and decides to surreptitiously intercept.

Some of Gilford's most memorable work was done for series television, where he made numerous guest appearances. Some notable examples:
  • Get Smart
    Get Smart
    Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

    (1969), playing Simon the Likeable
  • Soap
    Soap (TV series)
    Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from 1977 to 1981.The show was created as a parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such...

    (1979), recurring role as Saul, a 4000-year-old man abducted by aliens
  • Taxi
    Taxi (TV series)
    Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...

    , (1979, 1981), two appearances as "Joe Reiger", the cold, uncaring father of Judd Hirsch
    Judd Hirsch
    Judd Hirsch is an American actor most known for playing Alex Rieger on the television comedy series Taxi, John Lacey on the NBC series Dear John, and Alan Eppes on the CBS series Numb3rs.-Early life and education:...

    's "Alex Reiger" character. In one of these episodes, Gilford reprised his old "pea soup coming to a furious boil" impression. He played a more connected father to Paul Sand
    Paul Sand
    Paul Sand is an American comedic actor.-Background:Sand was born Paul Sanchez in Santa Monica, California, the son of Sonia Borodiansky, a writer, and Ernest Rivera Sanchez, an aerospace tool designer. His father was Mexican and his mother of Russian descent.-Career:At the age of 11, he started at...

     in several episodes of Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers.


He also appeared in The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls
The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida...

, (1988, 1990), playing "Max Weinstock", The Defenders, All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...

, The Duck Factory
The Duck Factory
The Duck Factory is a 1984 NBC television series produced by MTM Enterprises that is perhaps most notable for being Jim Carrey's first lead role in a Hollywood production....

, Rhoda
Rhoda
Rhoda is an American television sitcom, starring Valerie Harper, which ran for five seasons, from 1974 to 1978 airing in 109 episodes. The show was a spin-off from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which Harper between the years 1970 and 1974 had played the role of Rhoda Morgenstern, a spunky,...

, Night Court
Night Court
Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 20, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone...

, and Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You?
Car 54, Where Are You? is an American sitcom that ran on NBC from 1961 to 1963. Episodes had various directors, the most recognized being Al De Caprio. Stanley Prager and Nat Hiken also directed several episodes. Most of its filming was on location in The Bronx, and at Biograph...

.

In 1979, Gilford won a Daytime Emmy award
Daytime Emmy Award
The Daytime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American daytime television programming...

 for his guest appearance on the children’s series Big Blue Marble
Big Blue Marble
Big Blue Marble was a half-hour children's television series that ran from 1974 to 1983 in syndication. Distinctive content included stories about children around the world and a pen-pal club that encouraged intercultural communication...

.

Gilford and his wife, Madeline Lee
Madeline Lee Gilford
Madeline Lee Gilford was an American film and stage actress and social activist, who later enjoyed a career as a theatrical producer. Gilford was the widow of actor Jack Gilford, whom she married in 1949...

, created a Jack Gilford Special in 1981 for the Canadian television channel, CBC
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

. At this time after forty years of night club performing, Gilford started to perform his one man shows in the 1980s. This included appearances at the Paramount Theater in Denver, as well as at the Town Hall NYC.

Gilford also was featured in a series of commercials for Bank of the Commonwealth in the Detroit area in the early-mid-1980s. Perhaps his most memorable role of this period was that of Bernie Lefkowitz in "Cocoon
Cocoon
Cocoon may refer to:*Cocoon , a pupal casing made by moth caterpillars and other insect larvae*Apache Cocoon, web development software*Cocoon , a 1985 science fiction film**Cocoon: The Return, 1988 sequel to Cocoon...

" (1985).

One of his last performances was on the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

's thirtysomething as an enigmatic rabbi.

In July 2008, Josh Radnor
Josh Radnor
Joshua Michael "Josh" Radnor is an American actor, director, and writer, best known for portraying the main character Ted Mosby on the popular, Emmy Award-winning CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, for which he has received worldwide fame and recognitions.He made his writing and directorial debut...

 and Jennifer Westfeldt
Jennifer Westfeldt
Jennifer Westfeldt is an American actress and screenwriter known for the hit 2001 independent film Kissing Jessica Stein, which she co-wrote with Heather Juergensen and in which the two women starred.- Early life :...

 starred in the premiere of the play FINKS based on Gilford and Madeline Lee's experience with HUAC and the Hollywood blacklist
Hollywood blacklist
The Hollywood blacklist—as the broader entertainment industry blacklist is generally known—was the mid-twentieth-century list of screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals who were denied employment in the field because of their political beliefs or...

 written by Gilford's son Joe Gilford and directed by Charlie Stratton for New York Stage and Film.

Personal life

Gilford met actress (and later producer) Madeline Lee
Madeline Lee Gilford
Madeline Lee Gilford was an American film and stage actress and social activist, who later enjoyed a career as a theatrical producer. Gilford was the widow of actor Jack Gilford, whom she married in 1949...

 at progressive political meetings and events during the late 1940s. Gilford entertained at many of these events, some of them produced by Lee. Madeline was married at the time and divorced her first husband soon after meeting Jack. They were married in 1949, remaining together for 40 years until his death in 1990. He and Lee raised three children: Lisa Gilford (from Madeline's previous marriage), now a producer; Joe Gilford, a screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

, playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...

 and director; and Sam Max Gilford, an artist and archivist
Archivist
An archivist is a professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to information determined to have long-term value. The information maintained by an archivist can be any form of media...

.

Following a year-long battle with stomach cancer
Stomach cancer
Gastric cancer, commonly referred to as stomach cancer, can develop in any part of the stomach and may spread throughout the stomach and to other organs; particularly the esophagus, lungs, lymph nodes, and the liver...

, he died in his Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 home in 1990, aged 81. His wife, Madeline Lee Gilford, died on April 15, 2008. The Gilfords resided in two apartments in Greenwich Village, one at 75 Bank St., where a young Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall
Lauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...

 once lived, and another at 380 West 12th Street. They are both interred at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, New York.

Broadway stage appearances

  • Meet the People (1940–1941, musical revue)
  • They Should Have Stood in Bed (1942, play)
  • Alive and Kicking
    Alive and Kicking (musical)
    Alive and Kicking is a musical revue with sketches by Ray Golden, I.A.L. Diamond, Henry Morgan, Jerome Chodorov, Joseph Stein, Will Glickman, John Murray, and Michael Stuart; music by Hal Borne, Irma Jurist, Sammy Fain, Hoagy Carmichael, Harold Rome, Sonny Burke, Leo Schumer, and Ray Golden; and...

    (1950, musical revue)
  • The Live Wire (1950, play)
  • The World of Sholem Aleichem (1953, play, Off-Broadway
    Off-Broadway
    Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

    )
  • The Diary of Anne Frank
    The Diary of Anne Frank (play)
    The Diary of Anne Frank is a stage adaptation of the book The Diary of a Young Girl. The play is a dramatization by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett. It opened at the Cort Theatre, Broadway, on October 5, 1955, in a production by Kermit Bloomgarden, directed by Garson Kanin and designed by Boris...

    (1955–1957, play)
  • Romanoff and Juliet (1957–1958, play)
  • Drink to Me Only (1958, play)
  • Look After Lulu (1959, play)
  • Once Upon a Mattress
    Once Upon a Mattress
    Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway...

    (1959, musical) – Gilford initially played the role of King Sextimus Off-Broadway
    Off-Broadway
    Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

    . When the show moved to Broadway
    Broadway theatre
    Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

    , the role was played by Will Lee
    Will Lee
    Will Lee was an American actor best known for playing the store proprietor Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street, from the show's debut in 1969 until his death in 1982.-Early career:...

     instead. Gilford, though, reprised his Sextimus performance for two television
    Television
    Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

     productions of the musical.
  • The Tenth Man (1959–1961, play)
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
    A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart....

    (1962–1964, musical)
  • Cabaret
    Cabaret (musical)
    Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....

    (1966–1968, musical)
  • Three Men on a Horse (1969–1970, play, revival)
  • No, No, Nanette
    No, No, Nanette
    No, No, Nanette is a musical comedy with lyrics by Irving Caesar and Otto Harbach, music by Vincent Youmans, and a book by Otto Harbach and Frank Mandel, based on Mandel's 1919 Broadway play My Lady Friends...

    (1971, revival, musical)
  • The Sunshine Boys
    The Sunshine Boys
    The Sunshine Boys is a play by Neil Simon that was produced on Broadway in 1972 and later adapted for film and television.-Plot:The play focuses on aging Al Lewis and Willy Clark, a one-time vaudevillian team known as "Lewis and Clark" who, over the course of forty-odd years, not only grew to hate...

    (1973–1974, play, replacement for Jack Albertson
    Jack Albertson
    Jack Albertson was an American character actor dating to vaudeville. A comedian, dancer, singer, and musician, Albertson is perhaps best known for his roles as Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure , Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Amos Slade in the 1981 animated film The Fox...

    )
  • Sly Fox
    Sly Fox
    Sly Fox is a comedic play by Larry Gelbart, based on Ben Jonson's Volpone , updating the setting from Renaissance Venice to 19th century San Francisco, and changing the tone from satire to farce....

    (1976–1978, play)
  • The Supporting Cast (1981, play)
  • The World of Sholem Aleichem (1982, play, revival)

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1944
1944 in film
The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....

 
Hey, Rookie Specialty
1944 Reckless Age Joey Bagle
1959 TV: The World of Sholem Aliechem Bontshe Shveig
1963 TV: Cowboy and the Tiger Tiger
1964 TV: Once Upon a Mattress
Once Upon a Mattress
Once Upon a Mattress is a musical comedy with music by Mary Rodgers, lyrics by Marshall Barer and book by Jay Thompson, Dean Fuller, and Marshall Barer. It opened off-Broadway in May 1959, and then moved to Broadway...

King Sextimus
1966
1966 in film
The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...

 
The Daydreamer
The Daydreamer
The Daydreamer is a 1966 Rankin/Bass stop-motion puppet animation and live-action musical fantasy film. Directed by Jules Bass, it was written by Arthur Rankin, Jr. and Romeo Muller, based on the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. It features songs by Jules Bass and Maury Laws.-Plot:Teen-aged Hans...

Papa Andersen
1966 Mister Buddwing Mr. Schwartz
1966 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (film)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a 1966 farce musical comedy film, based on the stage musical.Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus – specifically Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus and Mostellaria – it tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus...

Hysterium
1967
1967 in film
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....

 
Enter Laughing Mr. Foreman
1967 Who's Minding the Mint?
Who's Minding the Mint?
Who's Minding the Mint? is a comedy movie from 1967 with elements of a caper film. Howard Morris directed a cast that included Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine, Walter Brennan and Milton Berle. It was produced by Norman Maurer for Columbia Pictures....

Avery Dugan
1967 The Incident Sam Beckerman
1969 TV: Arsenic and Old Lace Dr. Jonas Salk
1970
1970 in film
The year 1970 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 9 - Larry Fine, the second member of The Three Stooges, suffers a massive stroke, therefore ending his career....

 
Catch-22
Catch-22 (film)
Catch-22 is a 1970 satirical war film adapted from the book of the same name by Joseph Heller. Considered a black comedy revolving around the "lunatic characters" of Heller's satirical anti-war novel, it was the work of a talented production team which included director Mike Nichols and...

"Doc" Daneeka
1971
1971 in film
The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...

 
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants (film)
They Might Be Giants is a 1971 film based on the play of the same name starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward. Occasionally cited mistakenly as a Broadway play, it never in fact opened in the USA...

Wilbur Peabody
1972 TV: Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing
Of Thee I Sing is a musical with a score by George Gershwin, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind. The musical lampoons American politics; the story concerns John P. Wintergreen, who runs for President of the United States on the "love" platform...

Vice President Throttlebottom
1972 TV: Once Upon a Mattress King Sextimus
1973
1973 in film
The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....

 
Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger
Save the Tiger is a 1973 film about moral conflict in contemporary America. It stars Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, Laurie Heineman, Thayer David, Lara Parker and Liv Lindeland. The film is directed by John G...

Phil Greene
1976
1976 in film
The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...

 
Tubby the Tuba voice: The Herald
1976 Short: Max Max
1976 Harry and Walter Go to New York Mischa
1977 The Doonesbury Special voice
1980
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....

 
Cheaper to Keep Her Stanley Bracken
1980 Wholly Moses
Wholly Moses
Wholly Moses! is a 1980 Biblical spoof similar to that of Monty Python's Life of Brian. Dudley Moore, between performances in 10 and Arthur, plays Old Testament-era idol maker Herschel, whose life and adventures seem to parallel that of the more famous Moses, all the while being misled to think he...

Tailor
1981] TV: Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood Wally
1981 Caveman
Caveman (film)
Caveman is a 1981 American slapstick comedy film written and directed by Carl Gottlieb and starring Ringo Starr, Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long and Barbara Bach.-Plot:...

Gog
1983 Anna to the Infinite Power
Anna to the Infinite Power
Anna to the Infinite Power is a 1983 science fiction/thriller film about a young teenager who learns that she was the product of a cloning experiment. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Mildred Ames...

Dr. Henry Jelliff
1983 TV: Happy Bernie Nelson
1985
1985 in film
-Events:* 3 December - Roger Moore steps down from the role of James Bond after twelve years and seven films. He is replaced by Timothy Dalton.* The Academy Award for Best Picture was won by Out Of Africa, while the highest grossing film was Back to the Future.* Bliss wins AFI Award for best Movie...

 
Cocoon
Cocoon (film)
The score for Cocoon was composed and conducted by James Horner. The soundtrack was released twice, through Polydor Records in 1985 and a reprint through P.E.G. in 1997 and features eleven tracks of score and a vocal track performed by Michael Sembello...

Bernard "Bernie" Lefkowitz
1985 TV: Hostage Flight Mr. Singer
1986 TV: Young Again The Angel
1988
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...

 
Arthur 2: On the Rocks Mr. Butterworth
1988 Cocoon: The Return
Cocoon: The Return
Cocoon: The Return is a 1988 science fiction film that is the sequel to the 1985 film Cocoon. All of the starring actors from the first film reprised their roles in this film, although Brian Dennehy only appears in one scene at the end of the film...

Bernard "Bernie" Lefkowitz

External links

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