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Lou Jacobi 1913 - 2009

Lou Jacobi of New York, New York County, NY was born on December 28, 1913, and died at age 95 years old on October 23, 2009 at Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries 735 Forest Ave, in Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey United States. Lou Jacobi was buried on October 24, 2009 at Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries 735 Forest Ave, in Paramus.

Lou Jacobi

Louis Harold Jacobovitch in Toronto, Canada, to Joseph and Fay Jacobovitch.

New York, New York County, NY 10019

December 28, 1913

October 23, 2009

Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries 735 Forest Ave, in Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey, 07652, United States

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Lou Jacobi's History: 1913 - 2009

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12/28

1913

Birthday

December 28, 1913

Birthdate

Unknown

Birthplace

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10/23

2009

Death

October 23, 2009

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries 735 Forest Ave, in Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey 07652, United States
Death location

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10/24

2009

Gravesite & Burial

October 24, 2009

Funeral date
Cedar Park and Beth El Cemeteries 735 Forest Ave, in Paramus, Bergen County, New Jersey 07652, United States
Burial location
Obituary

Lou Jacobi, Critically Acclaimed Actor of Film and Stage, Dies at 95 By ANITA GATES OCT. 25, 2009 Lou Jacobi, the mustachioed, scene-stealing Canadian-born actor and comedian who made a film and stage career playing comic ethnic characters but was lauded for serious dramatic roles as well, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 95. Mr. Jacobi made his Broadway debut in 1955 in “The Diary of Anne Frank,” playing a less-than-noble occupant of the Amsterdam attic where the Franks were hiding, and reprised the role in the 1959 film version. When Bosley Crowther, reviewing the movie in The New York Times, described Mr. Jacobi as “irksomely sluggish and pathetically lax as the weakling Van Daan,” it was high praise. As his career continued in New York and Hollywood, spanning five decades, Mr. Jacobi became accustomed to favorable reviews, mostly in comic roles and often when the film or play itself was less than warmly received. When he starred in the short-lived Broadway comedy “Norman, Is That You?” in 1970, Clive Barnes of The Times did not care for the play, but took time to wax rhapsodic about Mr. Jacobi and his character. “Mr. Jacobi is a very funny actor who hardly needs lines to make his point,” Mr. Barnes wrote. He added: “He has a face of sublime weariness and the manner of a man who has seen everything, done nothing and is now only worried about his heartburn.” Lou Jacobi in the 1976 CBS comedy “Ivan the Terrible.” Credit Everett Collection The 10 Broadway plays Mr. Jacobi appeared in also included Paddy Chayefsky’s “Tenth Man” (1959); Woody Allen’s “Don’t Drink the Water” (1966); and Neil Simon’s “Come Blow Your Horn” (1961), in which he portrayed the playboy protagonist’s disappointed father. His reading of the 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. Mr. Jacobi also made two dozen feature films. His supporting roles included the philosophical bartender in “Irma la Douce” (1963), the young hero’s unsophisticated uncle in “My Favorite Year” (1982), a lucky florist in the Dudley Moore comedy “Arthur” (1981) and a middle-aged transvestite who gets caught with his hostess’s clothes on in “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex” (1972). In Barry Levinson’s “Avalon” (1990), he played a dramatic role, one of four Russian brothers trying to build a future in Baltimore in the early 20th century. Louis Harold Jacobovitch was born on Dec. 28, 1913, in Toronto. He 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.” He did play the violin, then and for most of his life. After working as the drama director of a 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, Mr. Jacobi tried his luck in London. There he appeared in shows including the American musicals “Guys and Dolls” and “Pal Joey,” and was part of a command performance at the London Palladium in 1952. He made his film debut in “Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary?” (1953), a British comedy with the country’s blond sex symbol of the moment, Diana Dors. In the United States, he began making guest appearances on a variety of television series, ranging from “Playhouse 90” to “’The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”’ to “That Girl,” and appeared on series and in television movies until he was in his late 70s. Shelley Winters and Mr. Jacobi in the film “The Diary of Anne Frank,” for which he reprized his role in the Broadway play. Credit 20th Century Fox, via Associated Press In the summer of 1976, he was the star of a CBS comedy series, “Ivan the Terrible,” in which he played a Russian headwaiter living with nine other people in a small Moscow apartment. He was a regular on “The Dean Martin Show” on NBC for two seasons in the early 1970s. Mr. Jacobi made successful comedy recordings with titles like “Al Tijuana and His Jewish Brass” and “The Yiddish Are Coming! The Yiddish Are Coming!” In his last film, “I.Q.” (1994), he played the logician Kurt Gödel, one of Albert Einstein’s professor friends at Princeton. His last Broadway play was “Cheaters,” a 1978 comedy about two adulterous middle-aged couples. But he continued to do theater elsewhere. When he appeared in a 1983 Connecticut production of Clifford Odets’s “Rocket to the Moon,” at the age of 74, his reviews were as positive as ever. Mr. Jacobi married Ruth Ludwin in 1957. She died in 2004. He is survived by a brother, Avrom Jacobovitch, and a sister, Rae Gold, both of Toronto. “As you make your way through life, sometimes you happen upon people who know how to be happy,” the film critic Roger Ebert wrote in The Chicago Sun-Times in 1999. He was interviewing Mr. Jacobi on the occasion of the dedication of his star on Canada’s Walk of Fame. “I look at Lou, and I’m not afraid to be 85, if I can get there in Lou’s style.”

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11 Memories, Stories & Photos about Lou

Amanda S. Stevenson

16.8k+ favorites

12/28/2022

He didn't tell a joke,m he would teach you how to tell the joke.

Lou Jacobi liked to TEACH people great dirty jokes. So he taught me a terrific dirty joke and over the years people would adlib really funny asides, so I would incorporate their remarks into the story until it was the funniest joke in the world with a very strong Jewish accent too. Well I just finished telling the joke on a bus into Manhattan to my Norwegian cousin when lo and behold there was Lou Jacobi in a wheelchair in front of the Museum of Modern Art. I said, "LOU! I just told a joke that you taught me in 1968 on central Park South. The one about the old man in the schmatta trade who worked so hard he would fall asleep on the cutting room table." Lou said, "I don't remember that one. Tell it to me." I said, "It's really filthy, let's go over in the corner." Of course I acted out the long version with all the little asides like "He smoked his cigar all day long except on shabbos" and he started laughing before the punchline. Then he EXPLODED with the punchline and laughed for a few minutes." And his maid said, "I've been taking care of him for years! And I have NEVER seen him laugh so hard!" I told this joke to William Wolf in a whisper and while sitting down and William burst into laughter and told me a joke that Lou had told him. His joke was also funny. He was surprised how funny I am and never knew that I have been a professional comedienne since I was a teenager.
We lost William Wolf to COVID. He was a movie critic for CUE. Look for his tribute.

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