As a child of the Sixties I assume nearly everybody in Hollywood is probably Jewish. Especially if they are from New York City. Sure, New York has produced Irish actors (Jimmy Cagney), Italian actors (Robert De Niro), Puerto Rican actors (Erik Estrada), and Black actors (any of the Wayanses), but mostly Jews, especially funny ones (Marx Brothers). So yeah, George Segal is probably Jewish, right? I mean, everybody I know named something like Segel is. Nope, Segal was raised Quaker on Long Island, which at least explains the banjo.
But Christopher Walken, with that thick accent, MUST be Jewish, right? Nope. He’s a Methodist. I mean, I married the second Methodist I met, possibly because Jewish girls wouldn’t give me the time of day.
Okay, Zachary Levi, TV’s “Chuck,” with a name like that, he HAS to be Jewish, right? Au contraire, mon frere. He pronounces it “LEE-veye,” like the jeans; Levi is his middle name because his agent got sick of trying to sell Zack Pugh; he’s from Lake Charles, Louisiana; and, like most everybody from Lake Charles, he’s a born-again Christian.
So what celebrities have backgrounds that don’t match up with your preconceptions?
Dude, George Segal is from my old home town, and trust me, a Segal in Great Neck is as Jewish as any other Red Sea Pedestrian, hifalutin’ goyishe prep school or no hifalutin’ goyishe prep school.
It’s funny that you have the impression that most actors from New York are Jewish… except for all the Italians, Irish, Puerto Ricans and African Americans. Heh. Oh, where is that Rabbi smilie when we need it?
Actually, De Niro is only of half-Italian descent. His mother’s side is Irish. For someone who’s 100% Italian, Al Pacino would’ve been a better choice.
On topic: as a kid I always thought that Alan Alda was Jewish. I know, I know, the name is pretty obvious (especially his real name) but Hawkeye was always spouting Yiddish words and Alda just seemed so comfortable with them.
(Same thing with Carol Burnett. As a child I must have had the rather bizarre impression that all comedians were Jewish.)
Hee. I admit the banjo is troubling. Possible theories:
He’s trying to pass?
His parents’ shetl was in southern Russia?
A jug band is as close as he could get to klezmer music?
All the cool kids at his Quaker school were playing bluegrass?
He’s also played American Indians, Russians, Middle Eastern Types, and Other (like Quasimodo). He was the All-Purpose Ethnic, who could be anybody. Yul Brynner was another of these. TV’s answer to this was Michael Ansara.
Most people don’t realize that Martin Sheen is Hispanic. He changed his last name from Estevez to Sheen so he wouldn’t be typecast in ethnic roles. His son Charlie kept the name, while he other son, Emilio Estevez, went back to his roots.
Funnily enough, the spouse and I had the “He’s gotta be Jewish with a name like that” conversation just last week. Ignorance fought.
Of course, before that was the “Is Adam Baldwin one of the Baldwin brothers, because he doesn’t look like them” debate (FTR, he isn’t). Obviously Chuck is insufficiently engrossing to distract us from these discussions.
Lou Diamond Phillips also played the Yul Brynner role when *The King & I *was revived on Broadway. Wikipedia gives details on his ancestry: “His father was an American of Scottish, Irish and Cherokee descent and his mother was a Filipina of Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish extraction.”
True enough- and you can’t expect a guy to wait around for Irish-Mexican roles (andy more than Lou Diamond Phillips can wait around for Scottish-Filippino-Chinese-Irish roles).
But while Quinn played all kinds of ethnicities, he became Hollywood’s go-to guy for any Greek role, whether it be Zorba, the commando in “the Guns from Navarone,” an Onassis-clone in “The Greek Tycoon,” or the Greek neighbor in “Only the Lonely.”
