Jonathan Haze, Actor Who Played Seymour in OriginalLittle Shop of Horrors, Dies at 95

Mar. 15, 2025

Jonathan Haze and John Shaner in 1960’s The Little Shop of Horrors.Photo:LMPC via Getty

LMPC via Getty

Jonathan Haze, an actor best known for his starring role in the 1960 movieThe Little Shop of Horrors, has died. He was 95.

On Monday, Nov. 4,Deadlinereported that Haze’s daughter Rebecca said he died peacefully on Saturday, Nov. 2 at his home in Los Angeles. She did not provide a cause of death.

Haze was a frequent collaborator ofLittle Shop of HorrorsdirectorRoger Corman, a prolific independent filmmaker who died at 98 earlier this year in May.

Deadline noted that Corman discovered Haze while Haze worked in a gas station, and he soon after cast him in 1954’sMonster from the Ocean FloorandThe Fast and the Furious, his first two movie roles.

In that 1986 film,Rick Moranisportrayed the story’s lead role as Seymour, a florist who unwittingly begins growing a monstrous plant known as Audrey II.

Jonathan Haze in The Little Shop of Horrors.FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty

FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty

Haze appeared in only nine onscreen roles afterLittle Shop of Horrors, including a 1998 appearance in a voice role on the Nickelodeon seriesThe Angry Beavers. He did not act onscreen between 1999 and 2010, when he made his final film appearance in the movieNobody Smiling. In total, Haze and Corman made nearly 20 movies together.

“It seems like everything just came together right, you know,” Haze said ofLittle Shop of Horrorsback at a fan convention in 2001, per avideo shared on YouTubethat shows him and costar Jackie Joseph discussing memories of making the movie.

“Sometimes it just all works for you; somedays you get home runs and some days you strike out, well that was a home run situation,” he added. “We were shooting it on the stage that Charlie Chaplin used to make his films on, which maybe there was some kind of spiritual ghost or something that affected us all, but it is magical. And not only is it magical, you can’t really put your finger on what makes it wonderful.”

Jonathan Haze in 1957’s Not Of This Earth.LMPC via Getty

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source: people.com