Sam Levene (August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was an American Broadway and film actor.
Born in Russia, Levene appeared in several Broadway plays and musicals in the 1930s. In the mid-30s, he moved to Hollywood to re-create his stage role in the movie Three Men on a Horse, followed by After the Thin Man, both in 1936. He also appeared in many film noir classics including The Killers, Brute Force, and Crossfire. Levene made 36 films total during his Hollywood career.
Levene was nominated for a 1961 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Play for The Devil's Advocate. Although not a good vocalist, he can be heard in the role of Nathan Detroit on the original cast recording of the musical Guys and Dolls, in which he appeared on Broadway. His solo number, "Sue Me," was written in one octave to compensate for his lack of singing ability. He lost the role to Frank Sinatra in the film adaptation. Levene also starred in the Broadway productions Dinner at Eight (1932), Room Service (1937), Light Up the...
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Last updated: 02/07/08 at 08:29 PM
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Sam Levene died
Crossfire is a 1947 film which dealt with the theme of anti-Semitism, as did that year's Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentleman's Agreement.The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk; the screenplay was written by John Paxton. The film starred Robert Mitchum, Robert Young and Robert Ryan, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this film, as did co-star Gloria Grahame, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film received other nominations as well.A Jew (played by Sam Levene) is killed by a recently demobilized drunken U.S. soldier (played by Robert Ryan) simply because he is Jewish. The film also addresses the post-World War II issue of soldiers being released from the military with no training other than as soldiers.The movie was based on the novel The Brick Foxhole by screenwriter and director Richard Brooks, in which the victim was homosexual. As told in the "The Celluloid Closet" novel and in the documentary included on the DVD...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039286
The Killers is an American film noir about the investigation of a mob murder. It is based in part on the short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The film was directed by Robert Siodmak and released in 1946. It stars Burt Lancaster in his screen debut, as well as Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, and Sam Levene.
The story is about two hit men assigned to find and kill a man, Ole Anderson aka "the Swede" (Burt Lancaster), at a small-town diner. Impatient for his arrival, they kill him instead at a boarding house where, resigned to his fate, he awaits their arrival.
Because Anderson's life was insured, Investigator Jim Reardon (Edmund O'Brien) is assigned to look into the murder for his company. Interviewing several people from Anderson's past, Reardon develops the theory that Anderson's murder stemmed from an unsolved payroll robbery years earlier.
Working with a police detective (Sam Levene) who was a boyhood friend of Anderson's, Reardon sets a plan in motion to trap the hired...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669
Sam Levene was born
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