Lower East Side original, Sam Jaffe, was a character actor for over six decades, who by academic education, was meant to be an engineer. Instead, he had a long diverse dramatic career bridging stage and screen. His ability to immerse himself in whatever bits he found himself representing, whether a Tibetan holy man in Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon" or a crime boss in John Huston's "Asphalt Jungle" lent an intimacy to an extremely diverse range of characters.

Born on Orchard Street, Sam "Shalom" Jaffe was part of a family of immigrants, whose parents were Yiddish speakers who came from Russia. Adopted by an aunt and uncle, he was known by the family name "Levy" during his youth up until graduating from City College.

Among his acclaimed characters was the role of \["Kringelein"]\(https://www.playbill.com/personrolespage/person-role-page?person=00000150-ac7f-d16d-a550-ec7f19bd0002} in the 1930 Broadway production of "Grand Hotel" produced at the National Theatre, seen in the image here. By 1932, when the film version was produced, the role of the Jewish bookkeeper "Otto Kringelein" was played by none other than theatre royalty and epic Gentile Lionel Barrymore..

In 1956, Jaffe played the role of "Zero" in The Adding Machine by Elmer Rice. It opened for close to a week at The Phoenix Theatre, at the time located on East 74th, around the corner from the Bohemian National Hall, seen here. Here too he was cast as an "anguished bookkeeper" according to the New York Times

Jaffe's last appearance on Broadway was in "A Meeting By The River" in 1970 at The Palace Theatre seen here. 88-years-old at the time, his hair still a cluster of curls, his skin tone still Semitic and olive, his features reminiscent of Eastern Europe, Jewish and broad, he was chosen to perform the role of a "Hindu guru."

Growing up, Jaffe's uncle ran a series of event halls for celebrations like weddings, parties, mutual aid society meetings and even Jewish high holiday prayer services/ They started out with a hall on Grand Street near Norfolk, as seen in the image seen above. Jaffe's job there, according to his oral history at NYPL's Theatre Division, was to help rent the hall to families. The bigger the family, it seemed, the cheaper the hall, with the income derived from services such as hatcheck. Here's Jaffe: If you had a big mishpokhe, a great number of relatives, why you could get the hall free with a quarter keg of beer in addition, the lights everything."

Jaffe's theatrical career was also influenced by his mother's Yiddish theatre performances, at various neighborhood Yiddish theatres including The Thalia, at the time located on the Bowery, seen here. According to Jaffe's oral history, she had a lovely singing voice. Abandoned by her husband who deserted the family of four children and herself, Jaffe was adopted by his uncle and aunt as his mother had to now work to support the family. He recalls going to see his mother in her dressing room at the theatre, and taking in all the sights sounds and smells. She later re-married a Russian actor named Meyerson and the went on tour, leaving Jaffe with his uncle and aunt.

Young Sam got his education at the public school 120 on Broome Street, not far from the location of this image above. Subjected to the whims of his adopted family, he frequently had to move in with other relatives around the neighborhood.

He continued his early education in the neighborhood at public school 160 on Suffolk Street, near the image above.

For high school Jaffe, attended Townsend Harris High School currently located nearby the CUNY Queens College campus, seen in the image above. Established in 1849 as a preparatory school for City College, it specialized in a classical liberal arts education including Greek and Latin, and students were taught by City College professors. Graduates include Dr. Jonas Salk, discoverer of the polio vaccine and musical theatre composer Richard Rodgers.

After graduating college, Jaffe supported himself and his mother while teaching, including mathematics at the college preparatory school known as the Bronx Cultural Institute. While there, he performed in amateur theatricals and was spotted by the Washington Square Players, a short lived NYC troupe based around the Bandbox Theatre on E 57th, near the image above. Jaffe was invited to join them. Though he had been a prompter for his mother's Yiddish theatre troupes, this could be said to be the official start to his theatrical career.

Jaffe had already achieved a long and diverse theatre and film career before landing the role of "Dr. Zorba" in one of the first medical dramas on television, called "Ben Casey. The show about a handsome surgeon was became so entrenched in American popular culture of the early 1960's that even in the Vietnam War, US soldiers were said to have nicknamed their medics "Ben Caseys." The city's memorial to the Vietnam Veterans can be seen above.

Before setting out to Hollywood where he succeeded in pursuing several decades worth of character actor work, after his turn in "Ben Casey," Jaffe was part of one of the early critical performances of works by refugee German Jewish composer Kurt Weill entitled "The Eternal Road.".

Always continuing to engage with Jewish culture, Jaffe participated in one of the earliest Jewish broadcast series in a collaboration between the Jewish Theological Seminary, seen in the image above, and NBC studios called "The Eternal Light." that ran for decades beginning in 1944. He can be heard here performing in Yiddish popular classic humorist, novelist and dramatist Sholem Aleichem's stories.

By the time of his passing in 1984 at the age of 93, Sam Jaffe had been a deeply active member of the acting community. He co-founded and led the showcase known as Actor's Equity Library Theatre. that helped a wide range of actors achieve their performance goals, without additional expense. Through his indefatigable willingness to enter a multitude of worlds in far flung characters,the Lower East Side's Yiddish speaking, hard working Sam "Shalom" Jaffe, became one of the earliest Jewish actors to achieve Hollywood acclaim. Jaffe undoubtedly helped open doors to other actors who seemed only to fit "character" roles, and continued to help those who came after him.