An American film director, band leader, jazz pianist, television actor, saxophonist, arranger, film actor, screenwriter, film producer, and composer. He was born on March 20, 1906 in Jersey City. He obtained a BA degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and a law degree from Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey in 1930. He received a doctorate in humanistic discourses from Rutgers University in 1957. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960. He is famous for acting in The Impossible Years. He died in Los Angeles, at the age of 69, of liver cancer.