Seymour Cassel

Born: 22 January 1935
Where: Detroit, Michigan

Seymour received an early introduction to show business, traveling with a troupe of touring performers that included his mother.

After living for several years in Panama, where his family owned a nightclub, he moved to New York to pursue an acting career, studying with the American Theatre Wing and with Lee Strasberg's famed Actors Studio.

He met John Cassavetes at the future director's 46th Street acting workshop in 1957, eventually teaching alongside him and serving as associate producer on Cassavetes' directorial debut, Shadows.

Seymour made the first of seven appearances for Cassavetes in Too Late Blues. He first achieved prominence as an aging hippie street hustler in Cassavetes' Faces, earning an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor.

His largest role for Cassavetes came as yet another hippie opposite the director's wife Gena Rowlands in romantic comedy Minnie and Moskowitz.

Seymour went on to fashion a prolific career, splitting his time between big Hollywood pictures and independent features. He had a supporting role in Tin Men, then appeared in Dick Tracy and White Fang, a film which introduced him to executive producer Andrew Bergman.

He teamed with director Bergman for first Honeymoon in Las Vegas and later It Could Happen to You.

Other memorable 90s films include Indecent Proposal, Steve Buscemi's directing debut Trees Lounge, and Wes Anderson's Rushmore.

Seymour continued to appear in many films in the new millennium from The Royal Tenenbaums to Stealing Harvard.