He served for 37 years as a consultant to the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Affairs, and was a founder of the city's Yiddish Kinder Theater.
Also a noted humorist, dramatist and painter.
Married 71 years to Gertrude (nee Goldman); the couple had two sons, Joel and Neil.
He began acting as a teenager and studied with Lee Strasberg. He toured nationally with a Shakespearean troupe. During WWII, he worked on a farm in Vermont as part of the war effort.
Member of Actors' Equity and SAG-AFTRA, voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1966.