Allan Rich

Allan Rich, born Benjamin Norman Schultz on February 8, 1926, in Astoria, Queens, was an American character actor whose career spanned stage, screen, and publishing. His family, of Jewish background, relocated to the Bronx when he was six years old. He died on August 22, 2020, in Englewood, New Jersey, from progressive dementia, at the age of 94.

Rich's introduction to acting came at the age of nine, and his Broadway career extended from 1943 to 1953. His stage credits included I'll Take the High Road in 1943, Career Angel in 1944, Darkness at Noon in 1951, and The Emperor's Clothes in 1953. Away from Broadway, Rich took on the title role in a production of Ben Jonson's Volpone in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1948.

During the 1950s, Rich was among the many performers named as alleged communist sympathizers during the Hollywood blacklist era. In 1951, he married Elaine, and the couple had two children together. They moved to Los Angeles in 1976, where Elaine went on to work as a personal manager to a number of actors. She died in 2015 at the age of 81.

Beginning in 1979, Rich served as distributor and publisher of Hollywood portrait photography produced by George Hurrell. He was also the co-founder of We Care About Kids, a nonprofit organization that produces educational short films for middle and high school students. Rich spent the final five years of his life as a resident at the Lillian Booth Actors Home, operated by the Actors Fund of America.