Leonid Kinskey

'Leonid Kinskey' (qv), originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, performed across Europe and much of Latin America before his arrival in the United States. By 1932 he landed a small role as a radical in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy, _Trouble in Paradise (1932)_ (qv). The next year he played an agitator in _Duck Soup (1933)_ (qv). He went on to play small parts, nearly always foreigners and often comedic, in over sixty films, including Genflou in _Les Misérables (1935)_ (qv), the snake charmer in the well-known scene from _The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935)_ (qv), an Arab in _The Garden of Allah (1936)_ (qv), Ivan in _The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)_ (qv), and Pierre in _That Night in Rio (1941)_ (qv). His final film role was Dominiwski in _The Man with the Golden Arm (1955)_ (qv). Kinskey's most famous role was as Sascha, the humorous bartender at Rick's Cafe Americaine, in _Casablanca (1942)_ (qv). The part had originally been given to Leon Mostovoy; Kinskey replaced him because (1) he was funnier than Mostovoy, and (2) by his own testimony, he was a drinking buddy of the star Humphrey Bogart. His contract guaranteed him two weeks at $750 a week. He died on 8 September 1998, in Fountain Hills, Arizona, aged 95.::Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>