R.I.P. Seymour Cassel, character actor from John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson movies
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar-nominated actor Seymour Cassel—a fixture of John Cassavetes movies like Faces and Minnie And Moskowitz—has died due to “complications from Alzheimer’s disease.” Cassel, who made his career as a character actor playing lovable rascals, was also a regular player in Wes Anderson movies, most notably in a memorable role as Gene Hackman’s character’s friend Dusty in The Royal Tenenbaums. Cassel was 84.
Though he was born in Detroit in 1935, Cassel was raised in New York and lived above a nightclub that THR says his stepfather claimed to have won in a craps game. After leaving the Navy, he took some acting lessons and met John Cassavetes, who agreed to let him hang out and watch a movie he was making. Apparently unprompted, Cassel just started helping out the crew and worked with them all night, and the next day he asked Cassavetes if he could come back and keep working. That movie was Shadows, Cassavetes 1959 directorial debut, and—in a move that’s true to the improvisational, independent spirit that would later define his filmmaking style—he not only agreed to let Cassel keep working on set but he even gave him an uncredited role in the movie.
