Character Actor Lou Jacobi Dies

Posted by Harris Lentz in OBITS by Harris Lentz, III on November 7th, 2009

Leading character actor Lou Jacobi appeared in numerous productions on stage, film and television during his long career including several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

He was born Louis Jacobovitch in Toronto, Canada, on December 28, 1913. He performed on stage from his youth and began his film career in England in the 1950s. One of his early film roles was as Blackie Isaacs in the 1956 fantasy A Kid for Two Farthings, about a young boy and the sickly, one-horned goat he believes is a magical unicorn.

He made his Broadway debut in the acclaimed drama The Diary of Anne Frank in 1955 as Hans Van Daan, and reprised the role in the 1959 film version. Jacobi was also seen in the 1966 spy spoof The Last of the Secret Agents? with comics Marty Allen and Steve Rossi. He was also featured in Woody Allen’s comedy Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) in 1972, and the episodic 1987 film Amazon Women on the Moon, starring in the “Murray in Videoland” segment.

Jacobi guest-starred in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “Dear Uncle George”. He was also featured on television in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Man from U.N.C.L.E.,“Ronald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected, and Tales from the Darkside.

His final film roles was as theorist Kurt Godel, the pal of Walter Matthau’s Albert Einstein, in 1994’s I.Q.

Jacobi died at his home in Manhattan on October 23, 2009, at age 95.