Jonathan Haze, who played flower shop clerk Seymour Krelborn for Roger Corman in the original THE Little shop of horrorsonly one of the two dozen films he made with the B-movie legend, he died. He was 95 years old.
Haze died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles, said his daughter, Rebecca Haze The Hollywood journalist.
Cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was a valuable and versatile member of Corman's repertory company from 1954, when he starred in The Fast and the Furious AND Monster from the ocean floor – until 1967, when it appeared in The Valentine's Day Massacre and served as assistant director Born losers.
In one of his most notable turns, Haze played one of three teenagers who stumble across $250,000 worth of heroin and become drug dealers in the Warner Bros. drama. Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), the first feature film directed by Irvin Kershner.
The Pittsburgh native also played a tainted man The day the world ended (1955), an outlaw in Five guns to the west (1955), a stupid bartender in Gunslinger (1956), a pickpocket Swamp women (1956) – trained actresses to fight in that too – a Latino soldier He conquered the world (1956), a servant who works for a foreigner in Not of this earth (1957) and a short Viking in The saga of the Viking women and their journey into the waters of the great sea serpent (1957).
In Little shop of horrors (1960), produced and directed by Corman, Haze's bumbling Seymour realizes that the diseased potted plant he has grown from seeds procured by a Japanese gardener needs human blood and flesh to survive. (The film was originally titled The avid people eater.)
In one memorable moment, he pulls a tooth or two from the mouth of undertaker Wilbur Force (Jack Nicholson).
“All the interior scenes in the film were shot in two days, they lasted about 20 hours, then we went out on the street and shot three nights with a second unit, with a completely different crew. It was crazy,” Haze, who said he was paid $400 for the job, recalled in 2001. “We were actually shooting in Skid Row, using real bums as extras. We would pay them 10 cents per visit.”
In a 2011 post on Tumblr, Haze was described as “a small, slight man with boyish good looks, and it was a virtual certainty that he would never be a leading man, even in Corman's universe. Instead, he devoted himself to playing an assortment of oddballs and losers.
“He maintained overwhelming enthusiasm for whatever project he was working on and, lo and behold, was a physical chameleon. He had one of those faces that seemed to change completely depending on what costume he was wearing, and he was willing to indulge taste when it came to changing his posture and voice to create a new character on screen. From role to role, he is almost unrecognizable.”
Jonathan Haze with Dorothy Malone in “Five Guns West” from 1955.
Courtesy of the Everett Collection
The son of a jeweler, Jack Aaron Schachter was born in Pittsburgh on April 1, 1929. He worked on stage for Rich and then served for two years as stage manager for entertainer Josephine Baker.
After a summer of acting in Connecticut, Schachter hitchhiked to Los Angeles and found work at a gas pump on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and North Vista Street when he met Wyott Ordung, an aspiring director who introduced him to Corman.
“There's a part for you, a Mexican,” Corman told him. “But you'll have to grow a moustache. You will also have to bring your own costumes, do your own stunts and will not be paid overtime. Do you still want it?”
He was billed as Jack Hayes Monster from the ocean floor before settling on Jonathan Haze as his stage name. Meanwhile, he brought his friend, actor Dick Miller, to the director's attention, and Miller would become a frequent co-star.
In an interview with Tom Weaver for his 1998 book, Flashbacks of science fiction and fantasy filmsactress Jackie Joseph, who played shop assistant Audrey in Small shophe said that Haze “had pretty much all the pressure on him” during the making of the film.
“I don't think any of us would have been as successful if he hadn't been at the top of what he was doing,” he said. “It's funny to think about 'professionalism' when you think of something as stupid as Small shopbut there were definitely professionals on that stage.”
(Rick Moranis played Seymour in 1986 Small shop remake directed by Frank Oz.)
In Apache woman (1955), because it was cheaper for Corman to have actors change costumes rather than bring in new actors, Haze and others played warriors on both sides of the battle. “There's this scene where we have this big gunfight and we're shooting at the Indians and here are the Indians getting shot,” he recalled.
Including Haze's other work for Corman The beast with millions of eyes (1955), Rock Carnival (1957), Naked paradise (1957), The teenage caveman (1958), Premature burial (1962), The terror (1963) e X: The man with the X-ray eyes (1963).
He shared a project with Corman one last time in 1999, when he had a cameo in the series The ghost eye.
Haze also wrote the screenplay The invasion of the star creatures (1962) and was production manager of Haskell Wexler's Medium cold (1969) and producer (with Tom Smothers). Another nice mess (1972). He was then the CEO of a company that created campaigns for products like Kool-Aid and Schlitz Beer.
In addition to Rebecca, survivors include another daughter, Deedee; his grandchildren, Andrea, Rocco and Ruby; and great-grandson Sonny. He was married to costume designer Roberta Keith, who died in September, from the mid-1960s until their 1981 divorce.