Seymour Cassel
Cassel in 2009, photo by s_bukley/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Seymour Joseph Cassel
Date of Birth: January 22, 1935
Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Date of Death: April 7, 2019
Place of Death: Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Ethnicity:
*Ashkenazi Jewish (father)
*Irish (mother)
Seymour Cassel was an American actor.
Seymour was the son of Pancretia Ann (Kearney), a performer, and Seymour Joseph Cassel, a night club owner. His father was of Russian Jewish and German Jewish descent. His mother had Irish ancestry. He had two children with his former wife Elizabeth Deering.
Seymour’s paternal grandfather was named Edward M. Cassel. Edward was born in Leeds, England, to Russian Jewish parents.
Seymour’s paternal grandmother was Bertha Pfingst (the daughter of Ascher/Asher Adolph Pfingst and Johanna/Johanne Gersmann/Gersman). Bertha was born in Berlin, Germany, to a Jewish family. Adolph was the son of Mathias/Mathia “Matis” Pfingst, who was born in Bischofsberg, warmińsko-mazurskie, Poland, and of Ida Silbermann.
Sources: Genealogy of Seymour Cassel (focusing on his father’s side) – https://www.geni.com
Seymour’s father on the 1920 U.S. Census – https://familysearch.org
Seymour’s father on the 1930 U.S. Census – https://www.familysearch.org
Death record of Seymour’s father – https://familysearch.org
And RIP of course.
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKDZ-3C65
Do you think Cassel’s paternal grandmother was Jewish?
Pfingst literaly means Pentecost in German. An odd name for a Jew, I think. What we know is that she’s from Berlin, while her parents are from Poznań. I didn’t find any Pfingsts in Poznań, but I did find some near Wrocław, evangelists by religion.
http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/9829450
I found Jewish Pfingsts in Biskupiec. So we at least know there are Jews with the last name, though most appear to be Evangelists.
She was Jewish. At least two of her siblings or cousins (and possibly all of them) married Jews in the U.S. Her father’s or uncle’s birth name appears to have been Ascher (Adolph).