page_title: Sam Levene
section_title: Stage career
hierarchical_section_title: Sam Levene / Stage career
caption_attribution_description: English: Three Men On A Horse Playbill 1935 Broadway production
context_page_description: Sam Levene was a Broadway, film, radio and television actor as well as a director.
context_section_description: Levene appeared in over 50 theatrical stage productions in the United States and abroad. A master of farce and comedy, Levene was equally effective in drama as well. Levene's Broadway credits include performances in 39 Broadway productions, 33 of which were performances Levene created in the original Broadway productions, and a ten-month USO tour. For 54 years Sam Levene was a Broadway audience favorite playing cops, con men, theatrical types, businessmen, gamblers, hassled husbands and even doctors.
  Over his 54 year Broadway career, Levene performed in 39 Broadway productions on 29 different Broadway stages, on many stages, several times.  Levene performed over 1,600 times, in four original Broadway productions, three of which, starring roles at the now demolished Playhouse Theater: Street Scene (1929), Three Men on a Horse (1935), Make a Million (1958) and The Impossible Years (1966). In a 1976 interview with Tom McMorrow for The Daily News, Levene said he has been directed by all the stage greats, including Antonette Perry, Tyrone Guthrie, George Abbott, Jed Harris, Moss Hart, Ellis Raab and Otto Preminger. Levene said "Abbott is the greatest comedy director. He taught me to play farce with sincerity. Moss Hart had a great sense of what will work on a stage". Levene said "Ellis Raab was the best", his director for the all star revival of The Royal Family.  Levene said "Raab has patience, creativity and an understanding of the actor's problem. George Abbott never had the patience of a Raab. And Jed Harris, he never had the patience of anybody! He was impossible. He ranted and raved and tore his hair out. But Raab is always cool. He's the opposite of an Otto Preminger, who screams and upsets the actors".
  Levene's Broadway credits include star turns creating sharply etched comedic and dramatic performances in 33 original Broadway productions, many considered among 20th century American theatrical history including: Max Gordon, a theatrical agent with a dud client in Dinner at Eight (1932), Gordon Miller, the hilarious shoestring producer, in the smash hit farce Room Service (1937) directed by George Abbott, Patsy, the lovable gambler, in Three Men on a Horse (1935), Officer Finkelstein, a Jewish cop guarding the Nazi consul, played by Otto Preminger, in Claire Booth Luce's Margin for Error (1939), Sidney Black, a loud-mouth Broadway producer of a flop, a role playwright Moss Hart told Levene was largely a self-portrait of the author, in Light Up the Sky (1948), Nathan Detroit, a role written and crafted specifically for Levene by Abe Burrows in Guys and Dolls (1950), Fair Game (1957), a comedy which starred Levene at the Longacre Theatre, Dr. Aldo Meyer, a kind-hearted Jewish doctor in the original Broadway production of The Devil's Advocate (1961), written, produced and directed by Dore Schary, based on the novel by Morris West, for which Levene was nominated for the 1961 Tony Award for Best Actor in a play, and Al Lewis, a retired vaudevillian Levene created in the original 1972 Broadway production of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1972); Levene and Albertson reprised their star performances in the 1974 first national tour. Levene succeeded Albertson in the role of Willie Clark when he left the 1974 national tour, performing the role opposite Ned Glass as Al Lewis, who was subsequently replaced by Jack Somack.
  Levene's Broadway credits include starring roles in three Broadway revivals, portraying businessmen Boss Mangan in George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House (1959) directed by Harold Clurman, recreating his original Broadway performance as Patsy, the racetrack gambler originated three decades earlier, in the acclaimed all-star Broadway revival of the smash hit farce Three Men On A Horse (1969) and performing the role of veteran theatre producer Oscar Wolfe in the all-star 1975-76 Broadway revival of George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber's The Royal Family (1975) directed by Ellis Rabb; the production was filmed for the PBS series Great Performances on November 9, 1977; this version was released on DVD. 
  Levene succeede
caption: Playbill cover 1935 original Broadway production Three Men on a Horse at The Playhouse Theater starring Teddy Hart, Shirley Booth and Sam Levene
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