Jonathan Haze, an actor best known for his role as Seymour in 1960’s Little Shop of Horrors, has died. He was 95 years old.
Haze’s daughter, Rebecca Haze, reported that the frequent Roger Corman collaborator died on November 2.
She said he died peacefully of 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 produced, who died earlier this year at the age of 98.
This was the beginning of a long working relationship between Corman and Haze. He was soon cast in Corman’s The Fast and the Furious in 1954 and Five Guns West in 1955.
Jonathan Haze, an actor best known for his role as Seymour in 1960’s Little Shop of Horrors, has died. he was 95
Haze was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 1, 1929.
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 20 Corman films, he also appeared on television shows such as 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 scrawny dwarf, 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 evil and human characteristics after a drop of his blood falls on it.
After that, the plant, which he names Audrey Jr., begins to demand human blood.
This leads to the film’s tagline: “Feed me, Seymour.”
“It seems like everything worked out, 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 Roger Corman collaborator died on November 2.
She said he died peacefully of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, 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 the age of 98, produced.
This was the beginning of a long working relationship between Corman and Haze. He was soon cast in Corman’s The Fast and the Furious in 1954 and Five Guns West in 1955.
‘Sometimes everything works out for you; “Some days you hit home runs and other days you strike out, well that was a home run situation,” he added.
“We were shooting it on the set where Charlie Chaplin used to make his movies, where maybe there was some kind of spiritual ghost or something that affected us all, but it’s magical,” he recalled.
“And not only is it magical, but you can’t pinpoint exactly what makes it wonderful,” he recalled.
Haze is survived by her daughters Rebecca Haze and DD Haze; grandchildren Andre Bryant, Rocco Haze and Ruby Bryant; and one great-grandson, Sonny Haze.