Sam Levene acted in over 50 films across the United States and abroad.
46 Facts About Sam Levene
2.
Sam Levene immigrated to the United States when he was two years old.
3.
Sam Levene grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Avenue D and 8th Street and attended Public School 64.
4.
Six years later, Azenberrg and Wolsk were lead producers when Sam Levene was cast as Al Lewis opposite Jack Albertson as Willie Clark to co-star in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys ; after performing the role of Al Lewis 466 times in the original Broadway production, Sam Levene and Albertson headlined the subsequent national tour.
5.
Sam Levene is always pathetic but never enough to make you cry.
6.
Sam Levene appeared in over 50 theatrical stage productions in the United States and abroad.
7.
Over his 54-year Broadway career, Sam Levene performed in 39 Broadway productions at 29 different Broadway Theaters, and at some Theaters, several times.
8.
Sam Levene performed over 1,600 times at the now demolished Playhouse Theater in four original Broadway productions, three of which Sam Levene had starring roles after first appearing in Street Scene, Three Men on a Horse, Make a Million and The Impossible Years.
9.
Sam Levene starred in two major UK productions; in 1953, he recreated his original Broadway performance as Nathan Detroit in the first UK production of Guys and Dolls which opened at The Coliseum a few days before the 1953 Coronation which had a run of 553 performances.
10.
In 1954, Sam Levene originated the role of Horace Vandergelder in the world premiere production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, initially at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.
11.
Sam Levene has been synonymous with the role of Nathan Detroit for seven decades; Guys and Dolls book co-author Abe Burrows specifically crafted the role of Nathan Detroit around and for Sam Levene who signed for the project long before Burrows ever wrote a single word of dialogue, a similar break Burrows said he had when he wrote Cactus Flower for Lauren Bacall.
12.
The creative talent of Guys and Dolls agreed Sam Levene was perfect for the role of Nathan Detroit.
13.
Sam Levene is the reason the lead role of Nathan Detroit has one major song, the duet "Sue Me".
14.
Sam 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.
15.
Alan Alda, son of Guys and Dolls co-star Robert Alda, recalls watching Sam Levene perform Nathan Detroit while standing in the wings.
16.
Sam Levene could ride a moment as if a wild animal.
17.
For three decades Sam Levene reprised his role as Patsy from Three Men on a Horse numerous times on stage, film, TV and radio; the first time when he made his motion picture debut in Three Men on a Horse directed and produced by Mervyn LeRoy; three times on radio, two USO tours playing 200 shows to 120,000 servicemen, the first legitimate US theatrical production mounted overseas.
18.
Three decades after creating the role of Patsy in the Broadway production of Three Men On A Horse, Sam Levene reprised the role of Patsy on Broadway in Let It Ride, a Broadway musical which had an abbreviated run of 69 performances at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
19.
Sam Levene performed the Let It Ride title song on the Let It Ride float in the 1961 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
20.
In 1980, Sam Levene starred in a summer stock and national tour of Horowitz and Mrs Washington co-starring Claudia McNeil.
21.
Nine years after making his Broadway debut, Sam Levene was lured and moved to Hollywood in 1936 when he made his motion picture debut as Patsy in the Warner Bros.
22.
Sam 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.
23.
Sam Levene appeared in five RKO films, including The Mad Miss Manton ; Sing Your Worries Away ; The Big Street and A Likely Story and Crossfire, the first B picture to receive a best picture nomination.
24.
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", in The Mad Miss Manton, 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.
25.
Sam Levene established himself as one of the stalwarts of film noir.
26.
Sam Levene is one of several veterans of the genre who are graduates of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, including Lauren Bacall, Hume Cronyn, Kirk Douglas, Nina Foch, Agnes Moorehead, Thelma Ritter and Edward G Robinson.
27.
The Killers features the movie debut of Burt Lancaster, who just a year prior was professionally credited as Burton Lancaster when Sam Levene helped the former circus acrobat land a part in the original Broadway production of A Sound of Hunting starring Sam Levene.
28.
When several Hollywood studios initially wanted to sign Lancaster, Sam Levene, who was Lancaster's co-star in the 1946 Broadway melodrama A Sound of Hunting, agreed to represent him; eventually the two actors became lifelong friends.
29.
Together Lancaster and Levene fielded offers from David O Selznick, 20th Century-Fox and Hal B Wallis, who had a deal at Paramount Pictures, ultimately introducing Lancaster to Harold Hecht, who became Lancaster's long-time agent and Hollywood film production partner.
30.
Burt Lancaster and Sam Levene worked together in two other film noirs, the 1947 Brute Force, directed by Jules Dassin, Lancaster's second film, which appears on several film noir lists and the acclaimed film noir Sweet Smell of Success included on AFI's Catalogue of Feature Films.
31.
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.
32.
Sam Levene co-starred with Orson Welles in two important adaptations of stage productions for Welles' The Campbell Playhouse, first as Lefty in Burlesque, February 17,1939 and five weeks later, March 24,1939, as Owen O'Malley, the John Barrymore part, in Twentieth Century.
33.
Sam Levene starred in nine Theatre Guild on the Air productions; two radio versions of Three Men on a Horsethe first adapted by Arthur Miller aired January 6,1946; the second June 1,1947 with David Wayne joining the cast as Erwin.
34.
Sam Levene recreated his original Broadway performance as Sidney Black, the loud-mouth producer, in Moss Hart's Light Up the Sky opposite Joan Bennett and Thelma Ritter for the Theatre Guild on the Air, April 16,1951, a role he performed in a live performance on Ford Theatre on CBS TV.
35.
For Suspense Radio on CBS, Levene reprised his film role as Samuels, the murdered Jewish soldier, in Crossfire, April 10,1948.
36.
In 1942, Havoc and Sam Levene co-starred in the RKO film Sing Your Worries Away.
37.
In 1957, Havoc and Levene guest-starred on The Mother Bit in Season 9 of TV's Studio One series; in 1959 Levene and Havoc were guest stars in The Larry Fay Story for Season 2 of The Untouchables; in a dramatic role, Sam Levene was nightclub owner and mob boss Larry Fay, accused of price fixing milk and June Havoc was Sally Kansas, Fay's lover, who appeared as a lounge singer in one of Fay's nite clubs.
38.
Sam Levene frequently appeared on Fred Allen's Texaco Star Theatre in a sketch comedy segment known as Allen's Alley.
39.
Sam Levene was one of the few Jewish actors who played characters who had a Jewish name in the 1930s and 1940s; notably in The Purple Heart Levene played the role of Lt.
40.
Sam Levene lost the role of Nathan Detroit to Frank Sinatra in the film version.
41.
The first time Hirschfeld captured Sam Levene was his Broadway performance as Patsy along with Shirley Booth as Mabel in the 1935 original Broadway production of Three Men on a Horse; a second caricature of Sam Levene and Booth featuring the Broadway casts from Tobacco Road and The Children's Hour published in the New York Herald Tribune June 7,1936 celebrates Broadway long-runs.
42.
Hirschfeld created two caricatures of Sam Levene's critically acclaimed performance as Max Gordon, the shoestring producer, in the original 1937 Broadway production of Room Service, published in the New York Herald Tribune and The Brooklyn Eagle.
43.
On December 28,1980, Sam Levene died of an apparent heart attack in New York City.
44.
Sam Levene was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, Queens.
45.
In 1960, Sam Levene was awarded the Actors Fund Medal of Honor, at the time, the second actor awarded the honor.
46.
Sam Levene was not cautious and that made all the difference.