Sam Jaffe

Sam Jaffe (May 21, 1901 – January 10, 2000) was, at different points in his career in the motion picture industry, an agent, a producer, and a studio executive.

Biography Jaffe was born in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants Hannah and Max Jaffe. He had three older siblings: Joseph, David, and Adeline. He was raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

After dropping out of DeWitt Clinton High School, he took a job as an office boy for the Famous Players–Lasky Corporation where his brother-in-law, B. P. Schulberg, was an executive.

He worked briefly for Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures In 1933, his sister left the firm to form the Ad Schulberg agency after her divorce from B.P. Schulberg; the firm represented such top actors as Marlene Dietrich, Fredric March, and Herbert Marshall before she sold it and moved to London.

In 1959, Jaffe retired and moved to London. There he produced several films, including Born Free (1966) and Theater of Blood (1973). In 1985, he returned to Los Angeles and became a collector of modern art. He died in 2000 at age 98

Personal life Jaffe was married to Mildred Gersh, also from New York. One of her younger brothers was Phil Gersh, who moved from New York to Los Angeles and became a Hollywood agent. After working with Jaffe, Gersh purchased the Jaffe Agency in 1949. He renamed it in the 1960s as The Gersh Agency.

Sam and Mildred Jaffe had three daughters: Naomi Jaffe Carroll, Barbara Jaffe Kohn, and Judith Jaffe Tolmach Silber.

Partial filmography Theater of Blood (1973) Born Free (1966) Damian and Pythias (1962) The Fighting Sullivans (1944) Diplomaniacs (1933) The Vanishing Frontier (1932)