Seymour Cassel obit

Seymour Cassel, Familiar Face in Cassavetes Films, Dies at 84

He was not on the list.


Seymour Cassel, the Oscar-nominated John Cassavetes regular whose wily glint, weathered look and versatile talent made him an admired character actor, has died. He was 84.

Cassel died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications from Alzheimer's disease, his son, Matt, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Cassel also was a favorite of Wes Anderson, who cast the irascible actor in Rushmore (1998), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004).

Cassel first teamed with Cassavetes during the making of the improvisational Shadows (1959). On Cassavetes' directorial debut, he started out as an unpaid crewmember but was given an uncredited onscreen role — and then an associate producer credit — by the future icon of independent cinema.

Cassel received his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the hippie swinger Chet in Cassavetes' Faces (1968), then reveled in the role of the free-spirited, ponytailed parking attendant Seymour Moskowitz in Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), which Cassavetes directed and wrote specifically for his wife, Gena Rowlands, and his pal.

Cassavetes also directed Cassel in Too Late Blues (1961), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), Opening Night (1977) and Love Streams (1984) and on a 1962 episode of The Lloyd Bridges Show. The pair also acted together in The Webster Boy (1962) and Don Siegel's The Killers (1964), on Burke's Law in 1964 and on a 1973 ABC movie, Nightside.

Cassavetes, who died from liver disease in 1989 at age 59, was "the older brother I never had and the closest male friend I ever had," Cassel told Terry Gross in a 2006 NPR interview. "He was extremely influential in creating my career and guiding me."

At the other end of the Hollywood spectrum, Cassel played Robert Redford's chauffeur, Mr. Shackleford, in the glossy Paramount romance Indecent Proposal (1993) and appeared as the cop Sam Catchem in Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy (1990).

Meanwhile, Steve Buscemi hired Cassel for Trees Lounge (1996), Animal Factory (2000) and Lonesome Jim (2005) after they first worked together on the Sundance hit In the Soup (1992) — for which the Detroit native garnered a special jury prize for his performance as a slick con man.

Throughout his career, Cassel invigorated parts big and small, imbuing them with a rascal-like, counter-cultural exuberance.

"The character actors can have the fun, while the leading men think they have to be this object. I mean, that's boring," Cassel once said. "The fun is in filling out a part and making it a little crazy, because everyone has a little craziness in them anyway."

Cassel was born on Jan. 22, 1935, in Detroit. He grew up in New York and lived above a nightclub, which his stepfather told him he had won in a craps game. (He never knew his real dad, a Milwaukee beer salesman.)

His mother had been a stripper and dancer on the Minsky's burlesque circuit, and Cassel toured with her as a youngster.

"I got to get on stage when I was about 3 1/2, and I'd do the matinees in the little checkered suit with the baggy-pants comics," he told Gross. "To me, life on the train and then coming back to New York City [was wonderful]. I wasn't in school yet. When I had to go to school, I was not very happy about that."

When he was 12, he moved back to Detroit to live with his godmother.

After a stint in the U.S. Navy, where he became an accomplished boxer, Cassel briefly studied acting with Stella Adler at Carnegie Hall, where he came upon an ad.

"It said, 'Free Scholarships — John Cassavetes Workshop, Variety Arts Building,'" Cassel recalled in David Spaner's 2011 book, Shoot It!: Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film.

"I went there and said, 'I'm looking for one of those scholarships.' John talked to me for about an hour and then said, 'I've got to go. We're shooting a movie.' 'I said, 'Can I watch?' and he said, 'Sure.'

"I just started helping the cameraman. I worked all night. John took us to breakfast and said, 'What do you think?' I said, 'It's great. Can I come back?' He said, 'Sure.' And I kept coming back. Not only did it enhance my knowledge, but I found the best friend I ever had."

A real-life rapscallion, Cassel moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and earned a living with numerous TV roles (Combat!, My Three Sons, The F.B.I.), often playing off-center, fringe characters such as beatniks, hippies and oddballs.

On the two 1967 episodes of Batman that featured Van Williams and Bruce Lee as The Green Hornet and Kato, respectively, Cassel played a henchman named Cancelled who is employed by Col. Gumm (Roger C. Carmel).

He also claimed to have been Dennis Hopper's assistant director on Easy Rider (1969).

On Faces, made for $40,000, Cassel did double duty again as an actor and crew member (he was one of seven of the latter). "That way of making a film was so much fun," he told IndieWire in 1997. "No unions to deal with, no time schedule. We shot it in continuity, which John did with every film after that. He did it for himself, and he did it for the actors."

Cassel also came up with songs for a scene at the Whisky a Go-Go, he told NPR, "because we had no money for music. John knew I could do [that] because I had been doing it since the 1950s."

He then starred with Jon Voight and Robert Duvall in The Revolutionary (1970).

Involved with drugs and alcohol, Cassel hit a personal downslide when he was sentenced to six months in jail in 1981 for possessing and intending to distribute cocaine.

"I was crazy," he told Gross. "People would have one foot inside the door in Dan Tana's in L.A. and one out. [They would say,] 'What's Seymour going to do now? I gotta see it, but I don't want to be here when he does it.'"

Cassel entered rehab, In the Soup provided him with a comeback vehicle and he remained sober for many years. (It was In the Soup writer-director Alexandre Rockwell who connected him with Anderson.)

Cassel's formidable body of work also included Coogan's Bluff (1968), The Last Tycoon (1976), Valentino (1977), California Dreaming (1979), Tin Men (1987), White Fang (1991), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), It Could Happen to You (1994), 61* (2001), Stuck on You (2003), Beer League (2006), Reach for Me (2008) and Rockwell's Pete Smalls Is Dead (2010).

He had unsuccessful runs at the SAG presidency in 2007 and 2009.

Guns N' Roses guitarist Saul Hudson, a friend of Matt, credited the actor for giving him his nickname (that would be Slash). "Basically, he says it was because I was always in a hurry and I was always scheming, always hustling," he said.

Matt is an editor in Hollywood. Survivors also include daughters Lisa and Dilyn, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that a donation be made to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.



Filmography

Shadows (1958) (uncredited)

Man on a String (1960) as Hotel Pageboy (uncredited)

Juke Box Racket (1960) as Seymour

Murder, Inc. (1960) as Teenager (uncredited)

Too Late Blues (1961) as Red

The Webster Boy (1962) as Vic

The Nutty Professor (1963) as Bored Man (uncredited)

The Killers (1964) as Postal Clerk

The Hanged Man (1964, TV Movie) as Bellboy

Faces (1968) as Chet

The Sweet Ride (1968) as Surfer / Cyclist (uncredited)

Coogan's Bluff (1968) as Young Hood

The Revolutionary (1970) as Leonard II

Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) as Seymour Moskowitz

Moment to Moment (1975) as Wise Guy (uncredited)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) as Mort Weil

The Last Tycoon (1976) as Seal Trainer

Death Game (1977) as George Manning

Black Oak Conspiracy (1977) as Homer Metcalf

Valentino (1977) as George Ullman

Opening Night (1978) as Himself (uncredited)

Convoy (1978) as Governor Haskins

California Dreaming (1979) as Duke Slusarski

Ravagers (1979) as Blind Lawyer

Sunburn (1979) as Dobbs

Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979) as Himself

The Mountain Men (1980) as La Bont

King of The Mountain (1981) as Barry Tanner

Double Exposure (1982) as Dr. Frank Curtis

Love Streams (1984) as Jack Lawson

Beverly Hills Madam (1986, TV Movie) as Tony

Eye of the Tiger (1986) as Sheriff Copeland

Tin Men (1987) as Cheese

Best Seller (1987) as Carter (uncredited)

Survival Game (1987) as Dave Forrest

Plain Clothes (1987) as Ed Malmburg

Johnny Be Good (1988) as Wallace Gibson

Colors (1988) as Sullivan

Track 29 (1988) as Dr. Bernard Fairmont

Star Trek The Next Generation (1988, TV Series) as Lt. Cmdr. Hester Dealt

Wicked Stepmother (1989) as Feldshine, Magick Shop Owner

I'm Almost Not Crazy: John Cassavetes, the Man and His Work (1989, Documentary) as Himself

Sweet Bird of Youth (1989) as Hatcher

Dick Tracy (1990) as Sam Catchem

Cold Dog Soup (1990) as Jojo

White Fang (1991) as Skunker

Mobsters (1991) as Father Bonotto

Cold Heaven (1991) as Tom Farrelly

Diary of a Hitman (1991) as Koening

In the Soup (1992) as Joe

Love Is Like That (1992) as Uncle Bud

Chain of Desire (1992) as Mel

Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) as Tony Cataracts

Adventures in Spying (1992) as Ray Rucker

Trouble Bound (1993) as Santino

Indecent Proposal (1993) as Mr. Shackleford

Boiling Point (1993) as Virgil Leach

When Pigs Fly (1993) as Frank

Chasers (1994) as Master Chief Bogg

It Could Happen To You (1994) as Jack Gross

There Goes My Baby (1994) as Pop

Dark Side of Genius (1994) as Samuel Rourke

Imaginary Crimes (1994) as Eddie

Hand Gun (1994) as Jack McCallister

Tollbooth (1994) as Larry / Leon

Good Company (1996, TV series) as Jack O'Shea

Dead Presidents (1995) as Saul (uncredited)

Things I Never Told You (1996) as Frank

Dream for an Insomniac (1996) as Uncle Leo

Trees Lounge (1996) as Uncle Al

Slaughter of the Cock (1996) as Ahilleas

Dead Girl (1996) as Ira Golub

Caméléone (1996) as Francis

The Last Home Run (1996) as Older Jonathan

Tracey Takes On... (1996-1999, TV Series) as Candy Casino

This World, Then the Fireworks (1997) as Detective Harris

Cannes Man (1997) as Sy Lerner

Obsession (1997, German TV) as Jacob Frischmuth

Motel Blue (1997) as Capistrano Minister

The Last Don I & II (1997, TV Series) as Alfred Gronevelt

Hollywood Salome (1998)

Relax...It's Just Sex (1998) as Emile Pillsbury

Hoods (1998) as Pop Martinelli (uncredited)

The Treat (1998) as Chip O'Herlihee

Snapped (1998) as Bob

Rushmore (1998) as Bert Fischer

The Last Call (1998)

Getting to Know You (1999) (uncredited)

Ballad of the Nightingale (1999) as Jimmy

Smoking Cuban Style (1999) as Dragan

Me and Will (1999) as Roy

Black and White (1999) as Sal

Temps (1999) as Arthur, the studio president

Animal Factory (2000) as Lt. Seeman

The Crew (2000) as Tony 'Mouth' Donato

Just One Night (2000) as Arthur Imperial

The Sleepy Time Gal (2001) as Bob

Bartleby (2001) as Frank Waxman

61* (2001, TV Movie) as Sam Simon

Women of the Night (2001) as Sally

The Cure for Boredom (2001) as Eddie

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) as Dusty

The Chameleon (2001) as Richard Cavanaugh

Passionada (2002) as Daniel Vargas

Sonny (2002) as Albert

Stealing Harvard (2002) as Uncle Jack

Manna from Heaven (2002) as Stanley

The Burial Society (2002) as Sam Goldberg

The Biz (2002) as Eugene Hinkle 

A  Nero Wolfe Mystery (2002) as Dazy Perrit

A Good Night to Die (2003) as Guy

Stuck on You (2003) as Morty O'Reilly

Sweet Underground (2004) as Wally

Thanksgiving (2004, Short) as Del

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) as Esteban du Plantier

Lonesome Jim (2005) as Don

The Wendell Baker Story (2005) as Boyd Fullbright

Bittersweet Place (2005) as Jack "Pappy" Schaffer

The Tenants (2005) as Levenspiel

Before It Had a Name (2005) as Jeff

Welcome to California (2005) as Jim's Father

Circadian Rhythm (2005) as Hoover

Sea of Dreams (2006) as Tomaso

Hollywood Dreams (2006) as Rupert

Heist (2006, TV series) as Pops

Ray of Sunshine (2006) as Victor

Artie Lange's Beer League (2006) as Dirt

The Happiest Day of His Life (2007) as Mrd. Jacobs

Postal (2007) as Paul

Cosmic Radio (2007) as Malcolm Stone

Beau Jest (2008) as Abe Goldman

Barbiere, IL (2008) as Mort

Big Heart City (2008) as Larry

Reach for Me (2008) as Alvin

Flight Of The Conchords (2009, TV Series) as Johnny Boy

Staten Island (2009) as Jasper Sabiano

Not Dead Yet (2009) as Francis

Irene in Time (2009)

Chasing 3000 (2010) as Poppy

Kissing Strangers (2010) as Mr. Koster

Pete Smalls Is Dead (2010) as Saco

Now Here (2010) as Commissioner

Fort McCoy (2011) as Father Mivkovek

Without Borders (2011) as Detective McKenneth

L!fe Happens (2011) as Pop Pop

Freerunner (2011) as Gramps

The Call (2011, co-starring Ryan Newman)

Silver Case (2012, directed by Christian Filippella) as Dealer

Booster (2012) as Harold

Broken Kingdom (2012) as Clayton

Lost Angeles (2012) as Film Critic

The Secret Lives of Dorks (2013) as Principal

Pride of Lions (2014) as Dominic Ackers

Lucky Dog (2014) as The Real Spencer

The Algerian (2014) as Professor Wright

At the Maple Grove (2014) as Boyle

The Last Beat (2014)

Silver Case: Director's Cut (2015) as Dealer

Under Suspicion (1994,TV series) as Capt. Mickey Schwartz