Jonathan Haze, who starred in The Little Store of Horrors and a number of other different Roger Corman productions, has handed away at age 95
Jonathan Haze had over 40 display screen performing credit to his title, with a lot of these credit being earned on Roger Corman productions – and the one credit score that stands out amongst all others got here when Haze took on the function of Seymour Krelborn in Corman’s 1960 man-eating plant basic The Little Store of Horrors. We misplaced Corman earlier this yr, when he handed away on the age of 98. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that we’ve misplaced Haze as nicely. His daughter Rebecca knowledgeable them that Haze handed away at his residence in Los Angeles this previous Saturday on the age of 95.
A cousin of drummer Buddy Wealthy, Haze was born with the title Jack Aaron Schachter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1929. He labored the stage for Wealthy and was Josephine Baker’s stage supervisor for 2 years earlier than he received into performing. He hitchhiked to L.A. and received a job pumping fuel whereas ready for his likelihood to interrupt into the movie world – and that likelihood got here when he was launched to Corman. He glided by the stage title Jack Hayes when he made his display screen debut within the 1954 creature characteristic Monster from the Ocean Ground, then the stage title advanced into Jonathan Haze as time went on.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Haze performed “a contaminated man in Day the World Ended (1955), an outlaw in Five Guns West (1955), a dimwitted bartender in Gunslinger (1956), a pickpocket in Swamp Women (1956) — he trained the actresses how to fight in that one, too — a Latino soldier in It Conquered the World (1956), a manservant working for an alien in Not of This Earth (1957) and a diminutive Viking in The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957).” He was additionally “one of the three teenagers who stumble upon $250,000 worth of heroin and become dealers in the Warner Bros. drama Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), the first feature directed by Irvin Kershner.” They add, “In Apache Woman (1955), because it was cheaper for Corman to have actors change costumes instead of bringing in new actors, Haze and others played warriors on both sides of the battle. Haze’s other work for Corman included The Beast With a Million Eyes (1955), Carnival Rock (1957), Naked Paradise (1957), Teenage Cave Man (1958), The Premature Burial (1962), The Terror (1963) and X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963).”
Haze additionally labored as a manufacturing supervisor on the likes of The Quick and the Livid (1954) and Medium Cool (1969), he was an assistant director on The Born Losers (1967), and he wrote the 1962 movie Invasion of the Star Creatures. His uncredited look in 1967’s The St. Valentine’s Day Bloodbath was his final performing credit score for a number of years, then he performed a “Dapper Man” in 1982’s Vice Squad. He disappeared from the display screen once more till the late ’90s, when he confirmed up in Fred Olen Ray’s Invisible Mother II and the Corman serial The Phantom Eye. His final performing credit score got here on the 2010 movie No one Smiling.
However, as talked about, he’ll all the time be remembered for taking part in Seymour Krelborn, a job he earned $400 for. The entire inside scenes for The Little Store of Horrors have been filmed in simply two days, adopted by three nights of exterior shoots with a second unit crew. It was quick and low-cost, however the film nonetheless endures greater than sixty years later and impressed a well-liked musical.
Haze was married to costume designer Roberta Keith, who simply handed away in September, from the mid-Nineteen Sixties till their 1981 divorce. He’s survived by his daughters Rebecca and Deedee, his grandchildren, Andre, Rocco, and Ruby; and his great-grandson, Sonny.
Our condolences exit to the household, pals, and followers of Jonathan Haze.
