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Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Death. Show all posts

Was Colin Kroll Jewish?

Yes, Colin Kroll was Jewish. The founder of Vine and HQ Trivia had also worked at Twitter and Yahoo. He went to high school at Bloomfield Hills Andover High School in Michigan. At 35, he died of a drug overdose in New York City on December 16, 2018.

Is Alan Thicke Jewish?

Alan Thicke was not Jewish. Thicke was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada, the son of Shirley "Joan" Isobel Marie (née Greer), a nurse, and William Jeffery, a stockbroker. They divorced in 1953. His mother remarried to Brian Thicke, a physician, and they moved to Elliot Lake.

The actor, known for his role as Dr. Seaver on Growing Pains, was married three times. His first marriage, to Days of Our Lives actress Gloria Loring, lasted from 1970 until around 1984; they had two sons, Brennan and Robin. He started dating actress Kristy Swanson when she was 17 years old in 1986 and got engaged to her two years later when he was 42. He married his second wife, Miss World 1990 Gina Tolleson, on August 13, 1994, and had a son, Carter William Thicke, before their divorce was finalized on September 29, 1999. In 1999, he met Tanya Callau in Miami, where he was the celebrity host and she was a model. They were married from 2005 until his death on December 13, 2016, when Thicke suffered a heart attack while playing hockey with his son Carter. He was 69.


Is Leonard Cohen Jewish?

Leonard Cohen was Jewish. The late songwriter was most famous for writing and performing Hallelujah.

Leonard Cohen was born September 21, 1934 and died November 7, 2016. He was a Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships.

Cohen was born on September 21, 1934 in Westmount, Quebec, an English-speaking area of Montreal, into a middle-class Jewish family. His mother, Marsha (Masha) Klonitsky, was the daughter of a Talmudic writer, Rabbi Solomon Klonitsky-Kline, of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry.

His paternal grandfather, whose family had emigrated from Poland, was Lyon Cohen, founding president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His father, Nathan Cohen, who owned a substantial clothing store, died when Cohen was nine years old.

The family observed Orthodox Judaism, and were members of Congregation Shaar Hashomayim; Cohen retained connections to it all his life. On the topic of being a Kohen, Cohen has said that "I had a very Messianic childhood." He told Richard Goldstein in 1967, "I was told I was a descendant of Aaron, the high priest."

Cohen attended Roslyn Elementary School and Herzliah High School, where his literary mentor Irving Layton was a teacher, and, from 1948, Westmount High School, where he was involved with the student council and studied music and poetry.

Cohen was described as a Sabbath-observant Jew in an article in The New York Times. Cohen was involved with Buddhism beginning in the 1970s and was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1996; he continued to consider himself Jewish: "I'm not looking for a new religion. I'm quite happy with the old one, with Judaism."

Leonard Cohen was inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honour. In 2011, Cohen received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.

Cohen died on November 7, 2016 at the age of 82 at his home in Los Angeles; cancer was a contributing cause. His death was announced on November 10. His funeral was held on November 10, 2016 in Montreal, at a cemetery on Mount Royal, his congregation Shaar Hashomayim confirmed. As was his wish, Cohen was laid to rest with a Jewish rite in a family plot.

Is David Bowie Jewish?

David Bowie was not Jewish. The singer and songwriter was born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947 in Brixton, south London. His mother, Margaret Mary "Peggy" (née Burns), from Kent, worked as a waitress, while his father, Haywood Stenton "John" Jones, from Yorkshire, was a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. The family lived near the border of the south London areas of Brixton and Stockwell.

Regarding David Bowie's religion, he said, in 2005, "Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always." He added that he was bothered by being "not quite an atheist".

Bowie showed an interest in Buddhism that began in 1967. He frequently studied in London under the Tibetan Lama Chime Rinpoche before becoming a solo artist. During a 2001 interview, Bowie claimed that "after a few months of study, he told me, 'You don't want to be Buddhist ... You should follow music.'"Bowie later wrote the song "Silly Boy Blue" in tribute to Rinpoche on his 1967 album David Bowie. In the 1960s he also studied with the crazy wisdom tulku Chögyam Trungpa.

While David Bowie was not Jewish, he did take classes in the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah. David Bowie died on January 10, 2016 from a months long battle with cancer. He was married to the supermodel Iman and the couple has one daughter, Lexi.

Is Harris Wittels Jewish?

Harris Wittels, of the television show "Parks & Recreation," was Jewish. Wittels was born in Houston, Texas. He was the son of Dr. Ellison Wittels and Maureen (née Davidson) Wittels. Wittels had one older sister, voiceover actress Stephanie Wittels.

In March 2007 Harris Wittels celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Emanu-El in Houston, Texas across the street from Rice University. Wittels attended High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston and graduated from Emerson College in 2006 with a degree in television/video production.

Wittels got his comedic start on the Sarah Silverman Program at 22-years-old. Silverman discovered him while he was doing stand up comedy. He wrote the book, "Humblebrag: The Art of False Modesty."

In a November 19, 2014 interview on the podcast, You Made It Weird, Wittels candidly discussed his personal life and history of drug addiction with host Pete Holmes. He said he had done drugs recreationally since he was 12. He said his drug usage got "out of hand" because of a breakup with a woman he felt was "perfect" for him in every way, except that she and her family were Scientologists, which he described as a "deal-breaker." He said he began to rely on Oxycodone to deal with his stress over the relationship, his work on various pilots and writing the Humblebrag book. "It was easier just to take drugs and do it all. I wrote that entire book on so much drugs," Wittels said. "That's a humblebrag."

During the podcast, Wittels told Holmes he had gone to rehab for a second time after becoming addicted to heroin, and had just gotten out of rehab a month earlier. "Sobriety is still fresh. I haven't figured it all out," he said.

Wittels' life ended on February 19, 2015 from a possible drug overdose in his Los Angeles home.

In an interview on Jewcy.com, Harris Wittels spoke openly about his Jewish heritage:


Congrats on being named to the Big Jewcy. How does it feel?

I feel like a million…. shekels?

What is your background?

Right now, it’s a picture of a dog on a skateboard.

Frillz – I am from Houston TX. Went to Emerson College in Boston and then moved to LA.

When did you know you liked to make people laugh? When did you realize this is what you wanted to do professionally?

When I made that background dog picture joke.

A couple months back New York Magazine ran a piece called, “Parks & Recreation and the Comedy of Super Niceness”. If you haven’t read it, it argues that what makes the show so special is that it avoid the cynicism of most contemporary comedies. Would you say this is correct? Do you have an idea of how this tone started?

I do think this is correct, and I attribute it to Mike Schur, who is sickeningly positive all the time. He just grins and eats ice cream cones and watermelon all day. I have never seen him be bothered by anything, no matter what I try.

I think a big change from season one to season two was more of people working WITH Leslie, instead of against her. It gave it a nice warm feeling.

Do you have a favorite character to write for?

There was an angry black gentleman in “94 Meetings” who had one scene in which he just yelled about how he needs a permit to post a sign for his missing bird. That is my favorite person I have ever/will ever get to write for.

You got your start writing on the Sarah Silverman Program. Did you work under Dan Harmon (creator of Community) at all? It seems like Community and Parks & Recreation are in a constant neck in neck race for best comedy on TV. Is there a rivalry?

I never got to work under him. Dan and I have a very complicated relationship, in that it is solely based on opaque Twitter exchanges. Most of them have to do with Humblebrag.

No rivalry. Community’s great. We are all on the same night of comedy, so… good for the goose, good for the gander. In fact, I think they’re our lead-in next year. So, everyone watch Community!

In preparing for this interview, it seemed impossible to avoid the fact that you are known as a guy who often takes his dick out. How did this reputation start? How did you feel when it was cemented in history in Sarah’s book?

What’s funny is Sarah asked if she could use a picture of my dick and I literally didn’t know which one she was talking about. Could have been one of dozens. That was a fun writer’s room. Good times. I felt great about it. My mom didn’t, but she’s fine now. My dad thought it was funny though.

You know that nightmare where you’re naked at school? Well, now that the whole world could potentially see my penis at any Barnes and Noble, that fear is gone from my life. It’s very liberating. I recommend everyone do it.

Have you had one a “wow, I can’t believe I get to do this” moment?

Sleeping with Scarlett Johansson was a big one for me. JK, but could you imagine though? She’s so hot. After reading this, she’ll probably NEVER sleep with me. Oh great.

I’ve had a few of those moments. It’s important to feel that way I think, so you don’t get jaded or something. It’s fun to do comedy and to get to do it everyday with the people I do it with. I feel very lucky, yes. God, I’m sorry if you’re reading this. I sound like such a jerkoff.

Beyond having almost 60,000 followers, the term has seemed to move beyond Twitter. It is a term that described a previously unnamed yet very common awful behavior. Did you ever think it would get this popular?

I did not. I love that people are responding to it. Sometimes people like it too hard and they’re mean to people I retweet on there, and I’m like “chill, yo!”

This answer was a humblebrag.

What makes a great Humblebrag?

The more veiled it is coupled with how extreme the brag is.

With Parks & Recreation done for the season, are you currently working on anything else? What’s next?

I got to write a couple of episodes for the third season of Eastbound and Down which was really fun and something of a dream come true since its my favorite show on TV.

I’m also working on a few feature scripts. Aziz, Jason Woliner, and I just pitched something together, so hopefully that ends up happening.

Is Lauren Bacall Jewish?

Yes, Lauren Bacall is Jewish. Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924 in the Bronx, New York. She was known for her distinctive husky voice. As an actress, Bacall first emerged as a leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film "To Have and Have Not". Bacall's performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

Lauren Bacall was the only child of Jewish parents (her mother emigrated from Romania through Ellis Island and her father was born in New Jersey to Polish-born parents). Her mother, Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, was a secretary who later legally changed her surname to Bacall. Her father was William Perske, who worked in sales. Bacall was a first cousin to Shimon Peres, the ninth President of Israel, whose term expired on July 24, 2014. Bacall died on August 12, 2014.

Is Peaches Geldof Jewish?

Was Peaches Geldof Jewish? It's debatable. Peaches Geldof died April 6, 2014 from unknown causes. Peaches Geldof had a Jewish grandmother and was married to Tom Cohen, who was Jewish. Peaches' father is Bob Geldof, the founder of Live Aid. He is technically a quarter Jewish.

When asked if he was proud of his Jewish ancestry, Geldof said: "I could not give a fucking shit... I was a quarter Catholic, a quarter Protestant, a quarter Jewish and a quarter nothing — the nothing won."


Peaches was the second daughter of Bob Geldof and Paula Yates. Their first was Fifi Trixibelle, and Peaches has a half-sister, named Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, her mother’s daughter with late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

In January 2012, before their wedding, Cohen, whose own parents met on an Israeli kibbutz, told the Daily Mail that “Peaches is Jewish – her grandmother is Jewish – she only discovered it last year.

“It makes a lot of sense to me,” he added. “She seems to me like a Jewish woman, the way she thinks and behaves. The first present I ever bought her was a Star of David from an antiques shop in Covent Garden. She wears and really loves it. I don’t know yet whether we’ll be having a traditional Jewish wedding but my parents did and I am really proud of them for it.”


Is Rodney Dangerfield Jewish?

Yes, Rodney Dangerfield was a Jew. Dangerfield was born Jacob Rodney Cohen in Deer Park within the Town of Babylon, New York, in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. Both of his parents were Jewish with ancestry in Hungary. His father was the vaudevillian performer Phil Roy (Philip Cohen) and his mother was Dotty Teitelbaum. His ancestors came to the United States from Hungary.

Rodney Dangerfield was known as a famous comedian and actor. His most famous one-liner was"I don't get no respect!" He had several funny movie credits in the 1980s including Easy Money, Caddyshack, and Back to School.

Is Harold Ramis Jewish?

Yes, Harold Ramis was Jewish. The actor Harold Ramis was born November 21, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were Ruth and Nathan Ramis, shopkeepers who owned the store Ace Food & Liquor Mart on the city's far North Side.

Harold Ramis had a Jewish upbringing, although in his adult life he did not practice any organized religion. He graduated from Stephen K. Hayt Elementary School and Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, and, in 1966, from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri where he was a member of the Alpha Xi chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity (ZBT).

Was Harold Ramis Jewish?
Harold Ramis

Ramis was an acclaimed actor, director, and writer, specializing in comedy. His best-known film acting roles are as Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) and Russell Ziskey in Stripes (1981), both of which he co-wrote. As a writer/director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Groundhog Day (1993), and Analyze This (1999). Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV (in which he also performed), and one of three screenwriters for the film National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).

Is Sid Caesar Jewish?

Sid Caesar was a Jew. The comedian Sid Caesar was Jewish.  Born September 8, 1922, Sid Caesar was an American comic actor and writer best known for the television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour. He was also a saxophonist and author of several books, including two autobiographies. Sid Caesar died February 12, 2014.

Caesar was the youngest of three sons born to Jewish immigrants living in Yonkers, New York. His father, Max, had emigrated from Poland; his mother, Ida (née Raphael), from the Russian Empire. The surname "Caesar" was supposedly given to Max, as a child, by an immigration official at Ellis Island.

Max and Ida Caesar ran a restaurant, a 24-hour luncheonette. By waiting on tables, their son learned to mimic the patois, rhythm and accents of the diverse clientele, a technique he termed "double-talk," which he would famously use throughout his career. He first tried his "double-talk" with a group of Italians, his head barely reaching above the table. They enjoyed it so much that they sent him over to a group of Poles to repeat his native-sounding patter in Polish, and so on with Russians, Hungarians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Lithuanians and Bulgarians. Despite his apparent fluency in many languages, Caesar could actually speak only English and Yiddish. Sid's older brother, David, was his comic mentor and "one-man cheering section." They created their earliest family sketches from movies of the day like "Test Pilot" and the 1927 silent film "Wings".
At fourteen, Caesar went to the Catskills Mountains as a saxophonist in Mike Cifichello's Swingtime Six band, and occasionally performed in sketches in the Borscht Belt.

Is Shirley Temple Jewish?

Shirley Temple Black was not Jewish. Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California and died on February 11, 2014. She was the daughter of Gertrude Amelia Temple (née Krieger), a homemaker, and George Francis Temple, a bank employee. The family was of English, German, and Dutch ancestry.

Shirley Temple had two brothers, George Francis, Jr. and John Stanley.

In January 1932, Temple was signed by Educational Pictures following a talent search at the dance school. The famous child actor was a one-time U.S. ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States, 1976–1977. Temple began her film career in 1932 at the age of three and, in 1934, found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer to motion pictures during 1934, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes, and clothing.

Is Philip Seymour Hoffman Jewish?

Philip Seymour Hoffman was not Jewish. The actor died of a drug overdose on February 2, 2014 in his Greenwich apartment in New York City.

Hoffman was born in Fairport, New York. His mother, Marilyn O'Connor (née Loucks), who was born in Waterloo, New York, is a family court judge, lawyer, and civil rights activist. His father, Gordon Stowell Hoffman, is a former Xerox executive. He had two sisters, Jill and Emily, and a brother, Gordy Hoffman, who scripted the 2002 film Love Liza, in which Philip starred. He had German, English, Irish, Dutch, and remote Polish ancestry. His father was Protestant and his mother Catholic.

Hoffman attended the 1984 Theater School at the New York State Summer School of the Arts. After graduating from Fairport High School, Hoffman attended the Circle in the Square Theatre's summer program, continuing his acting training with the acting teacher Alan Langdon.

He received a BFA in drama in 1989 from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, he was a founding member of the theater company the Bullstoi Ensemble with actor Steven Schub and director Bennett Miller. Soon after graduating, he went to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction and remained sober until May 2013, when he entered a detox facility after briefly relapsing.

Is Pete Seeger Jewish?

Pete Seeger was not Jewish. On January 27, 2014 Pete Seeger, died in New York City at 94.

Pete Seger, the American folk singer, was the author or co-author of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (with Joe Hickerson), "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)" (composed with Lee Hays of the Weavers), and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world.

Seeger was born at the French Hospital, Midtown Manhattan. His Yankee-Protestant family, which Seeger called "enormously Christian, in the Puritan, Calvinist New England tradition", traced its genealogy back over 200 years. A paternal ancestor, Karl Ludwig Seeger, a physician from Württemberg, Germany, had emigrated to America during the American Revolution and married into an old New England family in the 1780s. Pete's father, the Harvard-trained composer and musicologist Charles Louis Seeger, Jr., established the first musicology curriculum in the U.S. at the University of California in 1913, helped found the American Musicological Society, and was a key founder of the academic discipline of ethnomusicology. Pete's mother, Constance de Clyver Edson, raised in Tunisia and trained at the Paris Conservatory of Music, was a concert violinist and later a teacher at the Juilliard School.

Seeger was one of the folksingers most responsible for popularizing the spiritual "We Shall Overcome" (also recorded by Joan Baez) that became the acknowledged anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement.

Pete Seeger first visited Israel in 1964 and spent time on an Israeli kibbutz -- several in fact. Seeger performed Israeli folk tunes with the Weavers in the 1950s as part of the larger folk revival he was helping to champion. And just two years ago, he recorded a video for the Jewish retreat center Isabella Freedman that recalls the three questions posed by the Jewish sage Hillel.

In 2011, after a report that Seeger supported a boycott of Israel, he acknowledged to JTA.org that he “probably said” he supported such a measure, but that his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were evolving. 

Is Lou Reed Jewish?

Was Lou Reed Jewish? Yes, Lou Reed was Jewish. Born Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed on March 2, 1942, Lou Reed was an American rock musician and songwriter. He died on  October 27, 2013.

According to Wikipedia, after being guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of the Velvet Underground, his solo career spanned several decades. The Velvet Underground were a commercial failure in the late 1960s, but the group has gained a considerable cult following in the years since its demise and has gone on to become one of the most widely cited and influential bands of the era.

Lou Reed was born at Beth El Hospital (now Brookdale) in Brooklyn and grew up in Freeport, Long Island. Contrary to some sources, his birth name was Lewis Allan Reed, not Louis Firbanks, a name that was coined as a joke by Lester Bangs in Creem magazine. Lou Reed was the son of Toby (née Futterman) and Sidney Joseph Reed, who was an accountant. Both of his parents were Jewish.

Is Elmore Leonard Jewish?

Elmore Leonard was not Jewish. The crime novelist known for "Get Shorty" and "3:10 to Yuma" died at 87 in August 2013.

Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch (adapted for the movie Jackie Brown). Leonard's writings include short stories that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, as well as the current FX television series Justified.

Leonard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Flora Amelia (Rive) and Elmore John Leonard, Sr. Because his father worked as a site locator for General Motors, the family moved frequently for several years. In 1934, the family settled in Detroit. He graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1943 and immediately joined the Navy, where he served with the Seabees for three years in the South Pacific.

Leonard—or "Dutch," as he often preferred to be called—got his first break in the fiction market during the 1950s, regularly publishing pulp Western novels. He went on to write in the mystery, crime, and more topical genres, as well as screenwriting.

Elmore Leonard was married to Beverly Claire Cline in 1949, and they had five children together – three daughters and two sons before they got divorced in 1977. His second marriage in 1979, to Joan Leanne Lancaster (aka Joan Shepard), ended with her death in 1993. Later that same year, he married Christine Kent, and they divorced in 2012.

Leonard spent the last years of his life with his family in Oakland County, Michigan. He suffered a stroke on July 29, 2013. Initial reports stated that Leonard was recovering from the stroke. On August 20, 2013, Leonard died at his home in Bloomfield Hills (a Detroit suburb) of complications from the stroke.

Is Eydie Gorme Jewish?

Eydie Gorme was Jewish. Known as a singer who performed solo as well as with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in popular ballads and swing. She earned numerous awards, including a Grammy and an Emmy.

She was born as Edith Gormezano in The Bronx, New York in 1928, the daughter of Fortuna and Nessim Garmezano. Her father was a tailor. She was a cousin of singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka. Her parents were Sephardic Jewish immigrants, her father from Sicily and her mother from Turkey. She graduated from William Howard Taft High School in 1946 with Stanley Kubrick in her class.

Her parents were Sephardic Jews. For more than 55 years, Eydie and Steve Lawrence made beautiful music together. Eydie and Steve were a staple in the American music scene through much of the 20th century.

Vintage 1970s TV appearance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9qu_o0laLs

Eydie Gorme died in August 2013 at age 84.

Is Helen Thomas Jewish

Helen Thomas was not Jewish. The American author and news service reporter was a member of the White House press corps and an opinion columnist.

Born in Winchester, Kentucky, Helen Thomas was the seventh of the ten children of George and Mary (Rowady) Thomas, immigrants from Tripoli, Lebanon. Thomas was raised mainly in Detroit, Michigan, where her family moved when she was four years old, and where her father ran a grocery store. She was raised as a Christian in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Helen Thomas worked for the United Press and United Press International (UPI) for 57 years, first as a correspondent, and later as White House bureau manager. She was a columnist for Hearst Newspapers from 2000 to 2010, writing on national affairs and the White House.

A rabbi on the White House grounds with his son and a teenage friend for a May 27, 2010 American Jewish Heritage Celebration Day, questioned Thomas as she was leaving the White House via the North Lawn driveway. When asked for comments on Israel, she replied: "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine." and "Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German, it's not Poland..." When asked where Israeli Jews should go, she replied they could "go home" to Poland or Germany or "America and everywhere else. Why push people out of there who have lived there for centuries?"

On June 4, Thomas posted the following response on her web site:
"I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."

Thomas died on July 20, 2013, at her home in Washington, D.C. at the age of 92, just two weeks short of her 93rd birthday.

Is Cory Monteith Jewish?

Cory Monteith is not Jewish. The actor known for his role on Glee was born in Calgary, Alberta on May 11, 1982 and died on July 13, 2013.

He was the younger son of Ann McGregor, an interior decorator, and Joe Monteith, a military man who served in the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. He had an older brother named Shaun. Monteith's parents divorced when he was seven years old, and he and his older brother were raised by their mother in Victoria, British Columbia.

Before breaking into show business, Monteith worked various jobs, including Walmart people greeter, taxicab driver, school bus driver, and roofer.

Monteith was in a relationship with Lea Michele, his Glee costar who has stated she considers herself Jewish despite being raised in her mother's Catholic faith.

Is Gary David Goldberg Jewish?

Gary David Goldberg was Jewish. Famous for being an American writer and producer for television and film, Goldberg was best known for his work on Family Ties (1982–89), Spin City (1996–2002), and his semi-autobiographical series Brooklyn Bridge (1991–93).

Gary David Goldberg was born on June 25, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anne (née Prossman) and George Goldberg, a postal worker. Goldberg attended and graduated from Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. He studied at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and San Diego State University, ultimately deciding to become a writer. In 1969, he met the woman who would become his wife, Diana Meehan.

Gary David Goldberg died June 22, 2013 after a long battle with brain cancer in Moticedo, California. 

Is Frank Lautenberg Jewish?

Frank Lautenberg was Jewish. The United States Senator from New Jersey, who died on June 3, 2013, was a practicing Jew.

Lautenberg was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to Mollie (née Bergen) and Sam Lautenberg, impoverished Jewish immigrants from Poland and Russia, who had arrived in the United States as infants.