Jonathan Haze, who starred in The Little Shop of Horrors and several other Roger Corman productions, has passed away at age 95
Jonathan Haze had over 40 screen acting credits to his name, with many of those credits being earned on Roger Corman productions – and the one credit that stands out among all others came when Haze took on the role of Seymour Krelborn in Corman’s 1960 man-eating plant classic The Little Shop of Horrors. We lost Corman earlier this year, when he passed away at the age of 98. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that we’ve lost Haze as well. His daughter Rebecca informed them that Haze passed away at his home in Los Angeles this past Saturday at the age of 95.
A cousin of drummer Buddy Rich, Haze was born with the name Jack Aaron Schachter in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1929. He worked the stage for Rich and was Josephine Baker’s stage manager for two years before he got into acting. He hitchhiked to L.A. and got a job pumping gas while waiting for his chance to break into the film world – and that chance came when he was introduced to Corman. He went by the stage name Jack Hayes when he made his screen debut in the 1954 creature feature Monster from the Ocean Floor, then the stage name evolved into Jonathan Haze as time went on.
As The Hollywood Reporter notes, Haze played “a contaminated man in Day the World Ended (1955), an outlaw in Five Guns West (1955), a dimwitted bartender in Gunslinger (1956), a pickpocket in Swamp Women (1956) — he trained the actresses how to fight in that one, too — a Latino soldier in It Conquered the World (1956), a manservant working for an alien in Not of This Earth (1957) and a diminutive Viking in The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957).” He was also “one of the three teenagers who stumble upon $250,000 worth of heroin and become dealers in the Warner Bros. drama Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), the first feature directed by Irvin Kershner.” They add, “In Apache Woman (1955), because it was cheaper for Corman to have actors change costumes instead of bringing in new actors, Haze and others played warriors on both sides of the battle. Haze’s other work for Corman included The Beast With a Million Eyes (1955), Carnival Rock (1957), Naked Paradise (1957), Teenage Cave Man (1958), The Premature Burial (1962), The Terror (1963) and X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes (1963).”
Haze also worked as a production manager on the likes of The Fast and the Furious (1954) and Medium Cool (1969), he was an assistant director on The Born Losers (1967), and he wrote the 1962 film Invasion of the Star Creatures. His uncredited appearance in 1967’s The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was his last acting credit for several years, then he played a “Dapper Man” in 1982’s Vice Squad. He disappeared from the screen again until the late ’90s, when he showed up in Fred Olen Ray’s Invisible Mom II and the Corman serial The Phantom Eye. His last acting credit came on the 2010 film Nobody Smiling.
But, as mentioned, he’ll always be remembered for playing Seymour Krelborn, a job he earned $400 for. All of the interior scenes for The Little Shop of Horrors were filmed in just two days, followed by three nights of exterior shoots with a second unit crew. It was fast and cheap, but the movie still endures more than sixty years later and inspired a popular musical.
Haze was married to costume designer Roberta Keith, who just passed away in September, from the mid-1960s until their 1981 divorce. He is survived by his daughters Rebecca and Deedee, his grandchildren, Andre, Rocco, and Ruby; and his great-grandson, Sonny.
Our condolences go out to the family, friends, and fans of Jonathan Haze.