Leonid Kinskey (18 April 1903[1][2][3][4] – September 8, 1998) was a Russian-born American film and television actor, best known for his role as Sascha in the film Casablanca (1942).[1] His last name was sometimes spelled Kinsky.[2]
Life and career
Kinskey was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. He started his career as a mime in various imperial theatres in Russia in the mid-1910s.[5] In 1921, he fled Russia for Germany.[3] He acted on stage in Europe and South America before arriving in New York City from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January 1924. He joined the road production of Al Jolson's musical Wonder Bar, and in 1926 he made an appearance in the silent film The Great Depression,[3] although his scenes were deleted, before making his appearance in Trouble in Paradise (1932).[1]
His looks and accent helped him gain supporting roles in several movies, including the Sylvanian "agitator" in the Marx Bros. film Duck Soup (1933). He told Aljean Harmetz, author of Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca, that he was cast in his best-known role, Sascha in Casablanca, which he reportedly landed because he was a drinking buddy of star Humphrey Bogart.[1]
Kinskey performed in episodes on no less than three dozen television series between the 1950s and early 1970s. His first appearances on the "small screen" were in 1954 on Passport to Danger, The Spike Jones Show, and Lux Video Theater. Later, in 1962, he portrayed a visiting Soviet dignitary (with most of his dialogue in Russian) in the episode "The Good Will Tour" on the sitcomThe Real McCoys.[citation needed]
In 1965, Kinskey was a cast member in the pilot episode of Hogan's Heroes, performing as another Soviet character, who was an allied soldier and fellow prisoner-of-war. He, however, decided not to join the cast when that series went into formal production, for he reportedly "was uncomfortable playing let's-pretend with people in Nazi garb."[6] His final roles on television were in 1971, as a professor on the series Mayberry R.F.D.; a mortician on O'Hara, U.S. Treasury; and as a deli butcher on the sitcomThe Chicago Teddy Bears.
Personal life and death
Kinskey was married three times, first to Josephine Tankus from 1930 until her death in 1939.[citation needed] Four years later he married actress Iphigenie Castiglioni, who died in 1963.[citation needed] His final marriage, in 1985 in New York, was to Tina York, who was 38 years younger than him.[3] They remained married until 1998, when Kinskey died in Fountain Hills, Arizona from complications of a stroke.[2]
