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Sam Levene
Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was an 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.
Levene was born Scholem Lewin in Shatsk in the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) to a Jewish family, the youngest of five children by a dozen years. His family 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. 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 New York's Princeton Club.
On April 20, 1927, Levene made his Broadway stage debut 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, a play that only ran for three weeks at the Hudson Theatre.
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. 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.
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.
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."
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 USO tour.
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.
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Sam Levene
Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was an 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.
Levene was born Scholem Lewin in Shatsk in the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus) to a Jewish family, the youngest of five children by a dozen years. His family 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. 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 New York's Princeton Club.
On April 20, 1927, Levene made his Broadway stage debut 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, a play that only ran for three weeks at the Hudson Theatre.
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. 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.
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.
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."
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 USO tour.
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.