Szőke Szakáll (born Jakab Grünwald, akas: Gärtner Sándor and Gerő Jenő; February 2, 1883 – February 12, 1955), known in the English-speaking world as S. Z. Sakall, was a Hungarian-American stage and film character actor. He appeared in many films, including Casablanca (1942), in which he played Carl, the head waiter, Christmas in Connecticut (1945), In the Good Old Summertime (1949), and Lullaby of Broadway (1951). Sakall played numerous supporting roles in Hollywood musicals and comedies in the 1940s and 1950s. His rotund cuteness caused studio head Jack Warner to bestow on Sakall the nickname "Cuddles".
This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "S. Z. Sakall" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(February 2019)
US Naturalization index record of SZ Sakall
Gerő Jenő (later transcribed in English as Jacob Gero)[1] was born in Budapest to a Jewish family.[2] A sculptor's son, he was invalided out of the Hungarian army in World War I after a Russian bayonet wounded him in the chest.[3] During his schooldays, he wrote sketches for Budapest vaudeville shows under the pen name Szőke Szakáll, meaning "blond beard", in reference to his own beard, grown to make him look older, which he affected when, at the age of 18, he turned to acting. In 1946, he became a United States citizen under the name of Jacob Gero (aka Szőke Szakáll).[1]
The actor became a star of the Hungarian stage and screen in the 1910s and 1920s. At the beginning of the 1920s he moved to Vienna, where he appeared in Hermann Leopoldi's Kabarett Leopoldi-Wiesenthal. In the 1930s he was, next to Hans Moser, the most significant representative of Wiener Film, the Viennese light romantic comedy genre. He also appeared in Berlin. He appeared in Familientag im Hause Prellstein (1927), Ihre Majestät die Liebe (1929, which was remade in Hollywood as Her Majesty Love, with W.C. Fields in Sakall's role) and Two Hearts in Waltz Time (1930). For a brief period during this time, he ran his own production company.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Sakall was forced to return to Hungary. He was involved in over 40 movies in his native land. When Hungary joined the Axis in 1940, he left for Hollywood with his wife. Many of Sakall's close relatives were later murdered in Nazi concentration camps, including all three of his sisters and a niece, as well as his wife's brother and sister.
Sakall began a Hollywood career that included "an endless succession of excitable theatrical impresarios, lovable European uncles and befuddled shopkeepers".[4] His first American film role was in the comedy It's a Date (1940) with Deanna Durbin. The first big hit of his American career was Ball of Fire (1941) with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. Later, he signed a contract with Warner Bros., where he had a number of other small roles, including one in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) with James Cagney.
Later the same year, at the age of 59, he portrayed his best remembered character, Carl the head waiter in Casablanca (1942). Producer Hal B. Wallis signed Sakall for the role three weeks after filming had begun. When he was first offered the part, Sakall hated it and turned it down. Sakall finally agreed to take the role provided they gave him four weeks of work. The two sides eventually agreed on three weeks. He received $1,750 per week for a total of $5,250. He actually had more screen time than either Peter Lorre or Sydney Greenstreet.
Sakall died of a heart attack in Hollywood on February 12, 1955, shortly after filming The Student Prince, ten days after his 72nd birthday. He is buried in the Garden of Memory in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
^ abPaula (September 21, 2012). "What A Character: S.Z. Sakall". Paulascinemaclub.com. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
^Thomson, David (2017). Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio (Jewish Lives) (softcover) (first ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. p. 22. ISBN978-0-300-19760-0.
^"S.Z. Sakall Dies; Hollywood Actor". Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News. Associated Press. February 14, 1955. p. 4. Retrieved March 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
Sakall, S. Z. (1954). The Story of Cuddles: My Life under the Emperor Francis Joseph, Adolf Hitler and the Warner Brothers (hardcover). Translated by Tabori, Paul (First ed.). London: Cassell.
Further reading
Alistair, Rupert (2018). "S. Z. Sakall". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 234–236. ISBN978-1-7200-3837-5.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to S. Z. Sakall.
sakall, this, biography, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, september, 2014, . This biography needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources S Z Sakall news newspapers books scholar JSTOR September 2014 Learn how and when to remove this template message Szoke Szakall born Jakab Grunwald akas Gartner Sandor and Gero Jeno February 2 1883 February 12 1955 known in the English speaking world as S Z Sakall was a Hungarian American stage and film character actor He appeared in many films including Casablanca 1942 in which he played Carl the head waiter Christmas in Connecticut 1945 In the Good Old Summertime 1949 and Lullaby of Broadway 1951 Sakall played numerous supporting roles in Hollywood musicals and comedies in the 1940s and 1950s His rotund cuteness caused studio head Jack Warner to bestow on Sakall the nickname Cuddles S Z SakallSakall in 1937BornJakab Grunwald 1883 02 02 February 2 1883Budapest Austria Hungary present day Budapest Hungary DiedFebruary 12 1955 1955 02 12 aged 72 Los Angeles California U S Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park GlendaleOther namesS Z Cuddles Sakall Szoke SzakallGero JenoJacob GeroJacob GeroGrunwald JakabGartner SandorOccupationActorYears active1916 1954Spouse s Giza Grossner m 1916 died 1918 wbr Anne Kardos m 1920 wbr Contents 1 Early life and career 2 War years 3 Later career 4 Death 5 Partial filmography 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 Further reading 9 External linksEarly life and career EditThis section relies largely or entirely on a single source Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources Find sources S Z Sakall news newspapers books scholar JSTOR February 2019 US Naturalization index record of SZ Sakall Gero Jeno later transcribed in English as Jacob Gero 1 was born in Budapest to a Jewish family 2 A sculptor s son he was invalided out of the Hungarian army in World War I after a Russian bayonet wounded him in the chest 3 During his schooldays he wrote sketches for Budapest vaudeville shows under the pen name Szoke Szakall meaning blond beard in reference to his own beard grown to make him look older which he affected when at the age of 18 he turned to acting In 1946 he became a United States citizen under the name of Jacob Gero aka Szoke Szakall 1 The actor became a star of the Hungarian stage and screen in the 1910s and 1920s At the beginning of the 1920s he moved to Vienna where he appeared in Hermann Leopoldi s Kabarett Leopoldi Wiesenthal In the 1930s he was next to Hans Moser the most significant representative of Wiener Film the Viennese light romantic comedy genre He also appeared in Berlin He appeared in Familientag im Hause Prellstein 1927 Ihre Majestat die Liebe 1929 which was remade in Hollywood as Her Majesty Love with W C Fields in Sakall s role and Two Hearts in Waltz Time 1930 For a brief period during this time he ran his own production company War years EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933 Sakall was forced to return to Hungary He was involved in over 40 movies in his native land When Hungary joined the Axis in 1940 he left for Hollywood with his wife Many of Sakall s close relatives were later murdered in Nazi concentration camps including all three of his sisters and a niece as well as his wife s brother and sister S Z Sakall in That Night in Rio 1941 Sakall began a Hollywood career that included an endless succession of excitable theatrical impresarios lovable European uncles and befuddled shopkeepers 4 His first American film role was in the comedy It s a Date 1940 with Deanna Durbin The first big hit of his American career was Ball of Fire 1941 with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck Later he signed a contract with Warner Bros where he had a number of other small roles including one in Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 with James Cagney Later the same year at the age of 59 he portrayed his best remembered character Carl the head waiter in Casablanca 1942 Producer Hal B Wallis signed Sakall for the role three weeks after filming had begun When he was first offered the part Sakall hated it and turned it down Sakall finally agreed to take the role provided they gave him four weeks of work The two sides eventually agreed on three weeks He received 1 750 per week for a total of 5 250 He actually had more screen time than either Peter Lorre or Sydney Greenstreet Later career EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Sakall appeared in 30 further movies including Never Say Goodbye 1946 Christmas in Connecticut reuniting with Barbara Stanwyck Sakall appeared in four films released in 1948 the drama Embraceable You followed by April Showers Michael Curtiz s Romance on the High Seas Doris Day s film debut and Whiplash He was in four top movies in 1949 First Sakall played Felix Hofer in Doris Day s second film My Dream Is Yours Later that year he supported June Haver and Ray Bolger in Look for the Silver Lining Next he played Otto Oberkugen in In the Good Old Summertime with Judy Garland and Van Johnson This was a remake of Ernst Lubitsch s The Shop Around the Corner 1940 Finally Sakall was given the principal role of songwriter Fred Fisher in Oh You Beautiful Doll though top billing went to June Haver Sakall appeared in nine more movies during the 1950s two of them musicals with Doris Day playing J Maxwell Bloomhaus in Tea for Two 1950 and Adolph Hubbell in Lullaby of Broadway 1951 His other roles included Poppa Schultz in the Errol Flynn western Montana 1950 Miklos Teretzky in the June Haver musical The Daughter of Rosie O Grady also 1950 Don Miguel in the Randolph Scott western Sugarfoot Uncle Felix in the musical Painting the Clouds with Sunshine 1951 with Virginia Mayo and one of the episodes in the movie It s a Big Country also 1951 featuring Gene Kelly Van Johnson Gary Cooper Janet Leigh Fredric March and Ethel Barrymore His last movie was The Student Prince 1954 Death EditSakall died of a heart attack in Hollywood on February 12 1955 shortly after filming The Student Prince ten days after his 72nd birthday He is buried in the Garden of Memory in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale California Partial filmography EditComplete credits from 1940 on Az ujszulott apa 1916 A dollarneni 1917 Professor Imhof 1926 as Dr Hecht The Master of Death 1926 as Bordoni Hello Caesar 1927 written Heaven on Earth 1927 as Geschaftsfuhrer Family Gathering in the House of Prellstein 1927 as Sami Bambus Da halt die Welt den Atem an 1928 as Theaterdirektor Mary Lou 1928 as Der Jongleur Whirl of Youth 1928 as Sam ein Artist Pavement Butterfly 1929 as Paul Bennet Maler The Merry Farmer 1927 as Dorfpolizist Why Cry at Parting 1929 as Gottgetreu Kassierer von Harder amp Co Two Hearts in Waltz Time originally titled Zwei Herzen im 3 4 Takt or Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel Takt 1930 as Der Theaterdirektor Twice Married 1930 as Grafenberg s brother in law Rendezvous 1930 as Crepin Susanne Cleans Up 1930 as Dr Fuchs juristischer Berater The Jumping Jack 1930 as Eickmeyer Parfumfabrikant Her Majesty the Barmaid 1931 as Bela Torok Lias Vater Headfirst into Happiness 1931 as Baron Monteuil Die Faschingsfee 1931 as Matthias Diener Ihr Junge 1931 Walzerparadies 1931 as Schwartz Theateragent Ich heirate meinen Mann 1931 as Adolphe Der Stumme von Portici 1931 as Ehemann The Squeaker 1931 as Bill Billy Anerley My Cousin from Warsaw 1931 as Burel Lucienne s spouse The Woman They Talk About 1931 as Salewski Moretti The Soaring Maiden 1931 as Onkel Lampe The Unknown Guest 1931 as Leopold Kuhlmann Girls to Marry 1932 as Alois Novak Melody of Love 1932 as Bernhard I Do Not Want to Know Who You Are 1932 as Ottokar Countess Mariza 1932 as Lampe Overnight Sensation 1932 as Haase Tokajerglut 1933 as Schmidt Pressephotograph A City Upside Down 1933 as Der Burgermeister The Emperor s Waltz 1933 as Leitner Fabrikant aus Budapest A Woman Like You 1933 as Theobald Roehn Fabrikant Es war einmal ein Musikus 1933 as Haberlein Must We Get Divorced 1933 as Professor Friedrich Hornung Grand Duchess Alexandra 1933 as Dimitri Chefkoch im Hause der Grossfurstin Pardon tevedtem 1933 as Strangel ur Murray menedzsere Adventures on the Lido 1933 as Michael Scandal in Budapest 1933 as Stangl Voices of Spring 1933 as Kruger Schuldiener Az ellopott szerda 1933 as Schmidz fotoriporter Wenn du jung bist gehort dir die Welt 1934 as Beppo Everything for the Woman 1934 Helyet az oregeknek hu 1934 as Polgar papirkereskedo Ende schlecht alles gut de 1934 as Anton Polgar Stationery Shop Owner Bretter die die Welt bedeuten 1935 as Franz Novak Viereinhalb Musketiere 1935 as Sattler drummer Tagebuch der Geliebten 1935 as Dr Walitzky Il diario di una donna amata 1935 Baratsagos arcot kerek 1936 as Blazsek Matyas fenykepesz Fraulein Lilli 1936 as Prokurist Seidl The Lilac Domino 1937 as Sandor Bubi 1937 as Moller It s a Date 1940 as Karl Ober Florian 1940 as Max My Love Came Back 1940 as Geza Peyer Spring Parade 1940 as Latislav Teschek the Baker The Man Who Lost Himself 1941 as Paul The Devil and Miss Jones 1941 as George That Night in Rio 1941 as Penna Ball of Fire 1941 as Prof Magenbruch Broadway 1942 as Nick Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 as Schwab Seven Sweethearts 1942 as Mr Van Maaster the Father Casablanca 1942 as Carl the waiter Wintertime 1943 as Hjalmar Ostgaard Thank Your Lucky Stars 1943 as Dr Schlenna Shine On Harvest Moon 1944 as Poppa Carl Hollywood Canteen 1944 as Himself cameo Wonder Man 1945 as Schmidt Christmas in Connecticut 1945 as Felix Bassenak The Dolly Sisters 1945 as Uncle Latsie Dolly San Antonio 1945 as Sacha Bozic Cinderella Jones 1946 as Gabriel Popik Two Guys from Milwaukee 1946 as Count Oswald Never Say Goodbye 1946 as Luigi The Time the Place and the Girl 1946 as Ladislaus Cassel Cynthia 1947 as Professor Rosenkrantz April Showers 1948 as Mr Curley Romance on the High Seas 1948 as Uncle Lazlo Lazlo Embraceable You 1948 as Sammy Whiplash 1948 as Sam My Dream Is Yours 1949 as Felix Hofer Look for the Silver Lining 1949 as Shendorf In the Good Old Summertime 1949 as Otto Oberkugen Oh You Beautiful Doll 1949 as Fred Fisher aka Alfred Breitenbach Montana 1950 as Papa Otto Schultz The Daughter of Rosie O Grady 1950 as Miklos Mike Teretzky Tea for Two 1950 as J Maxwell Bloomhaus Sugarfoot 1951 as Don Miguel Wormser Lullaby of Broadway 1951 as Adolph Hubbell Painting the Clouds with Sunshine 1951 as Uncle Felix It s a Big Country 1951 as Stefan Szabo Small Town Girl 1953 as Papa Eric Schlemmer The Student Prince 1954 as Joseph Ruder final film role References Edit a b Paula September 21 2012 What A Character S Z Sakall Paulascinemaclub com Retrieved February 9 2019 Thomson David 2017 Warner Bros The Making of an American Movie Studio Jewish Lives softcover first ed New Haven CT Yale University Press p 22 ISBN 978 0 300 19760 0 S Z Sakall Dies Hollywood Actor Wilmington Delaware Morning News Associated Press February 14 1955 p 4 Retrieved March 7 2022 via Newspapers com Hal Erickson Rovi S Z Sakall Biography Fandango com Retrieved June 9 2019 Bibliography EditSakall S Z 1954 The Story of Cuddles My Life under the Emperor Francis Joseph Adolf Hitler and the Warner Brothers hardcover Translated by Tabori Paul First ed London Cassell Further reading EditAlistair Rupert 2018 S Z Sakall The Name Below the Title 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood s Golden Age softcover First ed Great Britain Independently published pp 234 236 ISBN 978 1 7200 3837 5 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to S Z Sakall Biography portalS Z Sakall at IMDb S Z Sakall at AllMovie S Z Sakall at the TCM Movie Database S Z Sakall at the British Film Institute Photographs of S Z Sakall Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title S Z Sakall amp oldid 1130003274, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
