Sam Levene
Sam Levene | |
---|---|
Died | December 28, 1980 New York City, U.S. | (aged 75)
Resting place | Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens |
Alma mater | American Academy of Dramatic Arts |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1927–1980 |
Spouse(s) | Constance Kane (m. 1953; div. 19??) |
Children | 1 |
Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian-American Broadway, films, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and drama theatrical stage productions. He also acted in over 50 films across the United States and abroad.[2]
Early life
Levene was born as Scholem Lewin in Belarus,[1] the youngest of five children by a dozen years.[3] He immigrated to the United States when he was two years old. He grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Avenue D and 8th Street and attended Public School 64.[4] In 1923, Levene dropped out of Stuyvesant High School. Since he had been in the class of Broadway for over five decades, the illustrious dropout was given a special award, his Stuyvesant High School diploma, in a 1976 ceremony held at the New York's Princeton Club.[5]
Broadway
On April 20, 1927, Levene made his Broadway stage debut[6] earning 60 dollars a week with his first Actor's Equity contract. A five-line role, Levene acted as District Attorney William Thompson in the original Broadway melodrama Wall Street,[7] a play that only ran for three weeks[8] at the Hudson Theatre.[9]
In 1980, Levene's last and thirty-ninth Broadway credit was his starring role as Daniel Horowitz in the 1980 comedy Horowitz and Mrs. Washington directed by Joshua Logan which closed after a run of only 10 previews and six performances at the John Golden Theatre.[10] Although the Henry Denker comedy was panned, Levene's star power and comedic performance enabled a five-month tour of Horowitz and Mrs. Washington which went on Christmas hiatus on Saturday December 13, 1980, and turned out to be Levene's final stage performance in Canada, just two weeks prior to his death on December 28, 1980.[11]
Levene's Broadway career began with five years of steady employment in nondescript roles in ten Broadway plays, including a series of flops. One titled Solitaire (1929), was a Broadway play about a Coney Island midget that only ran four performances at the now demolished Waldorf Theatre, partially financed with a $500 last-minute investment from Levene's older brother Joe.[12][13]
Emanuel Azenberg and Eugene Wolsk worked with Levene twice in two Broadway productions and two national tours; the first time as company managers when Levene replaced Alan King in the starring role of Dr. Jack Kingsley in the original Broadway production of The Impossible Years (1966), which Levene performed 322 times on Broadway and later headlined and starred in the national tour. Six years later, Azenberrg and Wolsk were lead producers when Levene was cast as Al Lewis opposite Jack Albertson as Willie Clark to co-star in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1972); after performing the role of Al Lewis 466 times in the original Broadway production, Levene and Albertson headlined the subsequent national tour. In his December 21, 1972, review of the original Broadway production of The Sunshine Boys in The New York Times, theatre critic Clive Barnes wrote, "Jack Albertson as the heart-stricken comic never puts a line wrong. He is always pathetic but never enough to make you cry. Lovely. His acerbic partner, Sam Levene, is as tough as vintage chewing gum, and yet with a sort of credible lovability."[14]
Theatrical career
Levene appeared in over 50 theatrical stage productions in the United States and abroad. A master of farce and comedy, Levene was equally effective in drama as well. Levene's Broadway credits include performances in 39 Broadway productions, 33 of which were performances Levene created in the original Broadway productions, and a 10-month
Over his 54-year Broadway career, Levene performed in 39 Broadway productions at 29 different Broadway Theaters, and at some Theaters, several times. Levene performed over 1,600 times at the now demolished Playhouse Theater in four original Broadway productions, three of which Levene had starring roles after first appearing in Street Scene (1929), Three Men on a Horse (1935), Make a Million (1958) and The Impossible Years (1966). In a 1976 interview with Tom McMorrow for the New York Daily News.[16]
Levene's Broadway credits include starring roles in three Broadway revivals, portraying businessmen Boss Mangan in George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House (1959) directed by Harold Clurman, recreating his original Broadway performance as Patsy, the racetrack gambler originated three decades earlier, in the acclaimed all-star Broadway revival of the smash hit farce Three Men on a Horse (1969) and performing the role of veteran theatre producer Oscar Wolfe in the all-star 1975-19976 Broadway revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family (1975) directed by Ellis Rabb; the production was filmed for the series Great Performances on November 9, 1977.[17]
Levene starred in two major UK productions; in 1953, he recreated his original Broadway performance as Nathan Detroit in the first UK production of
Levene originated the "craps-shooter extraordinaire" Nathan Detroit in the American musical Guys and Dolls on the Great White Way in the original 1950 Broadway production directed by the inimitable George S. Kaufman. Levene has been synonymous with the role of
Hundreds of productions of
Levene performed the role of Nathan Detroit in
Levene reprised his performance as Nathan Detroit on the Decca's original cast recording of the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls according to Variety, original cast album sales totaled 250,000 as of September 1, 1954. Guys and Dolls composer and lyricist Frank Loesser specifically wrote "Sue Me" in one octave for Levene and structured the song so he and Vivian Blaine never sang their show-stopping duet number together; the son of a cantor, Levene was fluent in Yiddish: "Alright, already, I'm just a no-goodnick; alright, already, it's true, so nu? So sue me." Frank Loesser felt "Nathan Detroit should be played as a brassy Broadway tough guy who sang with more grits than gravy." Levene sang "Sue Me" with "such a wonderful Runyonesque flavor that his singing had been easy to forgive, in fact it had been quite charming in its ineptitude."[26]
Alan Alda, son of Guys and Dolls co-star Robert Alda, recalls watching Levene perform Nathan Detroit while standing in the wings. In Never Have Your Dog Stuffed; And Other Things I’ve Learned, Alan Alda recalls, "Watching Sam Levene was thrilling. He could ride a moment as if a wild animal. New meanings occurred to him on the spot. Not only did he play the same lines differently every night, but the laughs rolled in from the audience in different places. How did he do it? This kind of spontaneity and this utter commitment to the moment became what I wanted to have. As good as my father was, what I was seeing as they played together a few feet away was the difference between burlesque and theatre, between performing and acting. I chose acting. I wanted to be Sam."[27]
For three decades Levene reprised his role as Patsy from
Levene as Patsy and
After making his Broadway debut 43 years earlier, Levene made his Off-Broadway debut, starring in Irv Bauer's A Dream Out of Time at the Promenade Theatre,[32] Levene's only Off-Broadway appearance.[33] In 1976, Levene was cast as Tubal, Shylock's business partner, in the Broadway production of The Merchant based on an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice but withdrew from the Philadelphia tryout after Zero Mostel, the play's star and Levene's lifelong dear friend died after first collapsing in his dressing room; Levene observed, "I was too close to Zero and a play we both loved, to do it without him."[34] When John Dexter, the director, asked Levene if he would continue in the show, Levene told Dexter, "We just had one death; we don't need two." Understudy Joseph Leon replaced Zero Mostel for the Broadway production of The Merchant which closed November 19, 1977, after five performances.[35] Levene's final Broadway credit was performing the starring role of Samuel Horowitz in the Broadway comedy Horowitz and Mrs. Washington (1980) co-starring Esther Rolle, directed by Joshua Logan.[36] In 1980, Levene starred in a summer stock and national tour of Horowitz and Mrs. Washington co-starring Claudia McNeil.
Film career
Nine years after making his Broadway debut, Levene was lured and moved to Hollywood in 1936 when he made his motion picture debut as Patsy in the Warner Bros. film Three Men on a Horse (1936) directed and produced by Mervyn LeRoy. Levene earned $1,000 a week to recreate on film his comedic Broadway role as Patsy he had played for seventy weeks in the original Broadway production of Three Men on a Horse (1935).[2]
Levene had 50 film credits. Levene worked with every major Hollywood studio over his five-decade Hollywood career; 14 of Levene's films were at
Levene worked with Barbara Stanwyck in two films, in 1938, Sam Levene co-starred as Lieutenant Brent who "steals a few scenes with his great delivery of lines",[37] in The Mad Miss Manton (1938), a screwball comedy that starred Henry Fonda; 31-year-old Stanwyck earned $60,000 for the film; 33-year-old Fonda earned $25,000, and 35-year-old Sam Levene earned $1,500 a week.[38] The following year Levene appeared as Siggie in film version of Golden Boy, replacing John Garfield who performed the role in the original Broadway production of the Clifford Odets play about the brutality of prizefighting; critics praised the performance of William Holden as boxer Joe Bonaparte, but it was 27-year-old Lee J. Cobb as the senior Bonaparte and Sam Levene as Holden's taxi driver brother-in-law who walked away with the picture and the reviews.[38]
Film noir
Levene established himself as one of the stalwarts of
Other Sam Levene noir credits include: Dave Woods, as a newspaper reporter, who gives a performance not to be missed who steals the show as a dirt digging journalist who is ultimately fighting for righteousness,[45] writing hard-hitting articles attacking the police[46] in Elia Kazan's crime film noir Boomerang,[47][48] Dr. John Faron, a psychiatrist in Dial 1119,[49] Capt. Tonetti in the 1950 Guilty Bystander[50][51] and Howard Rysdale in the 1957 Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957).[52] Alan K. Rode observed "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue was bolstered by a terrific ensemble cast headed by Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, Julie Adams, Walter Matthau, Dan Duryea, Charles McGraw and Sam Levene, who performs yeoman work as a realpolitik Manhattan district attorney, forced to temper the hard-charging idealism of assistant Egan who inevitably triumphs in the end".[53]
Radio
For most of his early film and Broadway stage career, Sam Levene straddled an active schedule with starring roles in a range of productions on all radio networks, including comedic performances and skits along with dramatic and comedy roles in abridged versions of important theatrical stage productions and adaptations on leading series, often reprising roles he had previously played on the Broadway stage and on film. Levene co-starred with
Levene reprised his film role as Dave Woods, the reporter in
Levene frequently appeared on
Jewish heritage
Sam Levene was one of the few Jewish actors who played characters who had a Jewish name in the 1930s and 1940s; notably in After the Thin Man (1936) as Lieutenant Abrams, in The Purple Heart (1944) Levene played the role of Lt. Wayne Greenbaum, a level-headed, brave, New York-bred Jewish lawyer who is defender and spokesman for a group of eight aviators brought to trial when they are downed in Japanese-held territory; in The Killers (1946), he was Police Lt. Sam Lubinsky; in Crossfire (1947), Levene was cast as Samuels, a Jewish civilian who was murdered at the start of the film; in a 1947 personal appearance, Levene said "Crossfire is a powerful denunciation of anti-Semitism and naturally I played the Jew and naturally I was killed." Cy Feuer, co-producer of the original Broadway production of Guys and Dolls (1950) said in a New York Times interview "Sam Levene was the ultimate Jew," referring to the original Nathan Detroit.[62] "It was perfect casting. He created the character by living." Unanimous raves greeted Sam Levene for his portrayal of the skeptical but good-hearted Jewish doctor, Dr. Aldo Mayer, in the 1961 Broadway production of "The Devil's Advocate".[63]
Levene lost the role of
Fordham University Professor of Music Larry Stempel, author of Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater, said if given a choice, he would cast Levene, who created the role on Broadway, as the ideal Nathan Detroit instead of Nathan Lane, who played the part in the Broadway revival, or Frank Sinatra, who played the part on film, stating, "Musically, he may have been tone-deaf, but he inhabited Frank Loesser’s world as a character more than a caricature."[66]
Caricatures
Over five decades
Personal life
Levene married Constance Kane in 1953. The couple had one son together, Joseph K. Levene, before their divorce. On December 28, 1980, Levene died of an apparent heart attack in New York City.[80] He was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens.[81]
Filmography
Awards
Nominated for the 1961 Tony Award for Best Actor in a play
On April 9, 1984, Levene was posthumously inducted in the
In 1998, Sam Levene,
In a 1996 New York letter to the editor, Sam Levene's son Joseph K. Levene, thanked film critic David Denby stating, “My father, the late great Sam Levene, has received many kudos illuminating his career as an actor, none recalled the passion for the theater more clearly than David Denby's comment in his review of Everyone Says I Love You: Sam Levene playing Nathan Detroit in the original Guys and Dolls couldn't sing a note but his gruff toneless outbursts could break your heart. Levene was not cautious and that made all the difference. Joseph added, "There were no Tony's in his career but thanks for the Denby."[87]
References
- ^ a b "New York, U.S. District Court Naturalization Records, 1824-1991", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WM2Z-NRZM : 8 March 2021), Samuel or Scholem Levine or Lewin, 1937.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4766-2877-6.
- ^ Bernard Carragher, "Confessions of a Pair of Hoofers", 1972
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- ^ "Horowitz and Mrs. Washington Broadway @ John Golden Theatre". Playbill. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
- ^ "Obituaries: Actor Sam Levene Secumbs at 75". Santa Cruz Sentinel. December 29, 1980. p. 24. Retrieved December 20, 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
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Watching Sam Levene was thrilling. He could ride a moment as if a wild.
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- ^ "Sam Levene, Actor, Dies At Age 75". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Associated Press. December 30, 1980. p. 10-A. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
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External links
- Sam Levene at IMDb
- Sam Levene at the Internet Broadway Database
- Sam Levene at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Sam Levene at American Film Institute