Charles Levin, an actor best known for his role as the mohel in the 1993 “Seinfeld” episode “The Bris,” has died. He was 70.
Levin was discovered July 15 near his car on a remote road in southwest Oregon. Levin was reported missing by his son, Jesse, on July 8. No cause of death has been announced, but local authorities have ruled out homicide and suicide.
Levin, who moved to the Northwest after retiring from acting in the late 1990s, was a versatile performer with 63 credits listed on the Internet Movie Database. He appeared in the movies “Annie Hall,” “The Seduction of Joe Tynan” and “This Is Spinal Tap,” and had recurring roles on the TV shows “Hill Street Blues,” “Alice,” “Punky Brewster” and “NYPD Blue.” But it was his appearance on “Seinfeld,” as a shaky mohel who accidentally cuts Jerry’s finger, that brought him a new level of recognition.
Jesse told The New York Times that “every bris that I go to now, every mohel compares himself to him,” adding that his father became “the team mascot for that profession.”
When the episode was taped, the younger Levin said, his father’s performance was “so over the top and ridiculous that Jerry Seinfeld fell out of a chair laughing at how ridiculous he was.” He described his father as “incredibly comedic. He just had a humongous personality. He was extremely charming. It’s very sad what’s happened.”
