Jonathan Haze, an actor best known for his role as Seymour in the 1960s Little Shop of Horrors, has died. He was 95.
Haze’s daughter Rebecca Haze reported that the frequent collaborator of Roger Corman died on November 2.
She said he died of peaceful natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, per Term.
Haze was discovered while working at a gas station and starred in the 1954 film Monster From the Ocean Floor, which Corman, who died earlier this year at the age of 98, produced.
This was the start of a long working relationship between Corman and Haze. He was soon cast in Corman’s The Fast and the Furious in 1954 and in Five Guns West in 1955.
Jonathan Haze, an actor best known for his role as Seymour in the 1960s Little Shop of Horrors, has died. He was 95
Haze was born on April 1, 1929 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
After being discovered in the 1950s, he racked up 41 credits during an acting career that spanned five decades.
In addition to appearing in nearly twenty Corman films, he has also appeared on television shows including Dragnet and 77 Sunset Strip.
But his most famous role by far was as Seymour Krelboined in the original 1960s adaptation of Little Shop of Horrors.
His character is described as ‘a skinny bovine, with a nose like a doorstop and the gait of an ostrich,” according to Deadline.
He works as an assistant in a down-on-his-luck flower shop, where he grows a plant that takes on vile, human-like features after a drop of his blood falls on it.
After that, the plant, which he calls Audrey Jr., begins. calls for human blood.
This leads to the film’s tagline: “Feed me, Seymour.”
“It seems like everything just came together, you know,” Haze said of Little Shop of Horrors at a fan convention in 2001, according to a video shared on YouTube.
Haze’s daughter Rebecca Haze reported that the frequent collaborator of Roger Corman died on November 2
She said he died of peaceful natural causes at his home in Los Angeles, according to Deadline
Haze was discovered while working at a gas station and starred in the 1954 film Monster From the Ocean Floor, which Corman, who died earlier this year at age 98, produced
This was the start of a long working relationship between Corman and Haze. He was soon cast in Corman’s The Fast and the Furious in 1954 and in Five Guns West in 1955.
“Sometimes it all just works for you; Some days you get home runs and other days you get strikeouts, well that was a home run situation,” he added.
“We were filming on the stage where Charlie Chaplin made his films, where maybe there was some kind of spiritual spirit or something that influenced us all, but it’s magical,” he recalls.
“And not only is it magical, you can’t quite put your finger on what makes it so great,” he recalls.
Haze is survived by his daughters Rebecca Haze and DD Haze; grandchildren Andre Bryant, Rocco Haze and Ruby Bryant; and a great-grandson, Sonny Haze.