Michael Constantine

A ruddy-complexioned, burly character player of TV and films whose work has run the gamut from comedy to Mafia dons, Michael Constantine is best recalled for playing Seymour Kaufman, principal of Walt Whitman High School, on "Room 222" (ABC, 1969-1974), as well as other agita-afflicted characters and ethnic types. He began his career on the New York stage and in the mid-1950s as understudy to Paul Muni in "Inherit the Wind." (While in the cast, he met and married actress Juliana McCarthy.) By the late 50s, Constantine had broken into feature films, playing a convict in "The Last Mile" (1959), a Mickey Rooney vehicle. He was memorable as Big John in "The Hustler" (1961), and as a former G.I. searching for a long-lost love in Italy in "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" (1969). Constantine was a Jew fleeing the Nazis in "Voyage of the Damned" (1976), and more recently was a judge in "The Juror" and the gypsy who places a curse on the driver who killed his daughter in "Stephen King's Thinner" (both 1996).