Sam Jaffe - Biography

Biography

He was born as Shalom Jaffe to Heida (Ada) and Barnett Jaffe, a Russian Jewish family in New York City, New York. His mother, Ada Jaffe, was a Yiddish actress in Odessa, Ukraine prior to moving to the United States; his father was a jeweler. He was the youngest of four children, and his siblings were Abraham, Sophie and Annie. As a child, he appeared in Yiddish theater productions with his mother, who after moving to the United States became a prominent actress and vaudeville star. He studied engineering at City College of New York and attended Columbia University. He also worked for several years as a math teacher before turning to acting as a career.

As a young man he lived in New York City's Greenwich Village in the same apartment building as a young John Huston. The two men became good friends and remained so for life. Jaffe was later to star in two of Huston's films: The Asphalt Jungle and The Barbarian and the Geisha. Jaffe's closest friends included Zero Mostel, Edward G. Robinson, Ray Bradbury and Igor Stravinsky. He began to work in film in 1934, rising to prominence with his very first role as the mad Tsar Peter III in The Scarlet Empress. Remarkably, in 1938 when Jaffe played the iconic title role of water "boy" Gunga Din, he was 47 years old.

Jaffe was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the 1950s, supposedly for being a Communist sympathizer. Despite this, he was hired first by Robert Wise for The Day the Earth Stood Still and then by director William Wyler for his role in the 1959 Academy Award-winning version of Ben-Hur.

Jaffe co-starred in the American TV series Ben Casey as Dr. David Zorba from 1961 to 1965 alongside Vince Edwards and had many guest starring roles on other series, including Batman as Mr. Zoltan Zorba, and the western Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Duel and Ben Murphy. In 1975, he co-starred as a retired doctor, who is murdered by Janet Leigh in the Columbo episode "Forgotten Lady". He also appeared with an all star cast in the TV pilot film of Rod Serling's Night Gallery and as Emperor Norton in one episode of Bonanza.