Actor. He was a Jewish Hungarian-born American actor of the stage and film of the early 20th century. For political reasons, he immigrated to the United States in 1939 after making at least 40 films in Hungary, where his film career started in silent films in 1917. He fled the Nazi agenda of Jewish persecution. Three of his sisters died in Nazi concentration camps. With a Marx-brothers-like comedic personality, he was given the nickname of "Cuddles" by studio owner Jack Warner. A longtime Warner Bros. character actor, he was immortalized as "Carl, the headwaiter" in the all-time classic 1942 film drama, "Casablanca." Born Jakab Grünwald, a son of seven siblings of a middle-class stonecutter, his family resided across from Budapest's Central Cemetery, where many of his father's statues and headstones were erected. He entered the field of comedy before graduating from high school. At first, he attempted to become a banker's clerk to please his family instead of entering show business. During World War I, he received a wound to his chest from a Russian soldier. After World War I, he and a partner began a touring group where his talent was recognized in Austria, and later successfully joined a German film company. On May 13, 1939, with the Nazi Party ruling Germany, he fled to the Netherlands before coming to the United States. He made his first Hollywood film, "It's A Date," in 1940, which was followed by a half-dozen films before the hit 1941 "Ball of Fire." Other Hollywood musicals and comedies include "Christmas in Connecticut" in 1945, "In the Good Old Summertime" in 1949, and "Lullaby of Broadway" in 1951. In 1946, he became a United States citizen under the Anglo-name of Jacob Gero, yet through the years, he had AKA names including Szoke Szakall, which is also listed on his nationalization papers. S. Z. Sakall's ultra-rare 1954 memoir, "The Story of Cuddles: My Life under the Emperor Francis Joseph, Adolf Hitler, and the Warner Brothers," documents the details of this actor's life. He was married for 35 years to a devoted wife who helped him with his lines.