In the early hours of this Tuesday, April 30, the news of the death of Zack Normansupporting actor born in Boston, United States, known for his participation in series such as The babysitter (it was Uncle Jack) and baywatch. She was turning 84 this month.
Norman’s daughter, Lori Zuker Briller, paid a warm tribute to him in a Facebook post. “Wherever you stayed, I know everything became more lively,” he wrote. “You were the most enigmatic person wherever you went. The best father, husband, grandfather and friend, you brought laughter and so much enrichment to all of our lives.”
Born Howard Jerrold Zuker on May 27, 1940, he also worked as a comedian and producer. He began making a name for himself in comedy when he debuted in front of the cameras on the Johnny Carson show in 1969. Then, on the big screen he was part of the cast of films such as After the lost emerald, Cadillac Man and babyfever.
Norman was a kind of standapero who shined in the ’60s. He worked at the Playboy, Flamingo, Las Vegas clubs and the Copacabana in New York. His distant and distinguished style made him debut on television doing monologues on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Zack Norman worked with Robin Williams, Michael Douglas and Tim Robbins.
Her career, however, never really took off and she began to be used for supporting roles. He still managed to work alongside big names in the industry, such as Robin WilliamsDanny DeVito, Michael Douglas, Tim Robbins or Robert Downey Sr.
He made half a dozen films in the ’70s before working on Ragtime (1981), by Milos Forman, and being chosen to play cousin Ira in After the lost emerald (1984), by Robert Zemeckis, adventure film starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.
He also co-starred in the comedy Americaby Robert Downey Sr., the father of the actor Chaplinand co-directed and starred in Chief Zabu. She appeared in nine films by Harry Jaglom – actor, film director and playwright – including Festival in Cannes (2001), Hollywood Dreams (2006) and Ovation (2015).
In theater and cinema
Norman also acted in more than 20 plays during his long, almost silent career and produced several films, most of them under his real name.
Variety wrote of Norman: “There are people over the decades who become fixtures, from Al Jolson to Jimmy Durante, Michael Ovitz to Harvey Weinstein. But no one’s presence has been as constant as Zack Norman’s.” The reason for this was not his fame, but rather that in the 1980s, Norman regularly bought space in that medium to always promote himself on page 6.
He was also an inveterate art collector who knew how to accumulate wealth outside the sets. For that he made acquisitions of emerging artists. One was Basquiat. In 1982, Norman purchased “Hannibal” from Basquiat at the artist’s studio for $3,200. That piece was sold on October 9, 2016, at Sotheby’s, for more than ten million dollars.
According to preliminary reports, the actor died of natural causes at the age of 83, just a few weeks before his birthday.
