Lou Jacobi
| Lou Jacobi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Louis Harold Jacobovitch December 28, 1913 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | October 23, 2009 (aged 95) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse(s) | Ruth Ludwin (1957-2004; her death) |
Louis Harold "Lou" Jacobi (December 28, 1913 – October 23, 2009) was a Canadian character actor.
Jacobi was born Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Ontario, to Joseph and Fay Jacobivitch. His family was Jewish.
Jacobi began acting as a boy, making his stage debut in 1924 at a Toronto theater, playing a violin prodigy in The Rabbi and the Priest. After working as the drama director of the Toronto Y.M.H.A., the social director at a summer resort, a stand-up comic in Canada’s equivalent of the Borscht Belt, and the entertainment at various weddings and bachelor parties, Jacobi moved to London to work on the stage, appearing in Guys and Dolls and Pal Joey. Jacobi made his Broadway debut in 1955 in The Diary of Anne Frank playing Hans van Daan, the less-than-noble occupant of the Amsterdam attic where the Franks were hiding, and reprised the role in the 1959 film version. Other Broadway performances included Paddy Chayefsky’s The Tenth Man (1959), Woody Allen’s Don’t Drink the Water (1966), and Neil Simon’s debut play Come Blow Your Horn (1961), in which he portrayed the playboy protagonist’s disappointed father. His reading of the film line "Aha!" stuck with the Times columnist William Safire so vividly that he cited it when writing about the meaning of the word 36 years later.
Jacobi also made two dozen feature films. His film debut in the 1953 British comedy, Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? with the country’s blond sex symbol of the day, Diana Dors. Other notable films in which he appeared include, Irma La Douce, Penelope, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) as 'Sam Musgrave' a middle-aged married man, experimenting with women's clothes, Arthur (1981) as lucky florist in the Dudley Moore comedy, My Favorite Year (1982) as the young hero’s unsophisticated uncle, and in Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), as a man named 'Murray', zapped into the television, wandering throughout sketches looking for his wife. In Barry Levinson’s Avalon (1990), in a semi-dramatic role, as one of four Russian brothers (elders) trying to build a future in Baltimore in the early 20th century, with the memorable comic relief catchprase, 'You cut the 'toikey without me'!? after he would notoriosly arrive late to family Thanksgiving dinner, every year. His final film role was I.Q. (1994), playing philosopher/mathematician Kurt Gödel.
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