Lew Palter, who was best known for being in the movie Titanic, has died at the age of 94, according to his family.
Palter had lung cancer and died at his home in Los Angeles on May 21, but the news didn’t get out until June. He was in one of the most sad scenes in James Cameron’s 1997 hit movie.
In the movie, he played Isidor Straus, who was seen in bed with his wife Ida as the Titanic hit an iceberg and started to sink.
The real-life Straus, who owned a department store with his brother Nathan and died on the Titanic in 1912, was the inspiration for the character.
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The scene only lasts a few seconds in the movie, but it is remembered as one of the most heartbreaking because the old pair chose to hold each other even though they knew they were about to die.
Palter is known for his part in Titanic, but he is also known for his role as Associate Justice Benjamin Halperin in the 1981 Supreme Court drama-comedy First Monday in October, which he shared with Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh.
Before he retired in 2013, the actor from New York was also a professor at the CalArts School of Theatre, where he taught future stars like Ed Harris and Don Cheadle.
Palter also worked in movies, but he also directed many off-Broadway plays, including Tom Topor’s thriller Nuts for the Los Angeles Stage Company. In 1987, Barbra Streisand played the lead role in a movie version of Nuts.
When L.A. Law star Nancy Vawter died in 2020, they had been married for 64 years and had a daughter together named Catherine Read Palter. Sam, Tessa, and Miranda Morgan, his grandkids, will also miss him.
The news of Palter’s death comes after the terrible “deaths of five men on the Titan sub, which” exploded when it tried to go to the Titanic wreck.
“CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, Stockton Rush, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British entrepreneur Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son” Suleman all died in the accident.
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The sub was reported missing on June 18 after its mothership, the Polar Prince, lost touch with it an hour and 45 minutes into its descent.
After days of looking, nothing was found until a field of wreckage was found with parts of the Titan. This proved that the ship had exploded in the deep water.
In a strange turn of events, it was also proven that one of the men on board had a connection to Palter’s character, Isidor Straus.
OceanGate CEO Rush’s wife, Wendy, is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, who decided to stay on the sinking ship together so that others could get on the few lifeboats and get to safety.
Minnie Weil, one of the Straus’s seven children, is the direct ancestor of Wendy Rush.
Palter’s family, friends, and fans, as well as the families of everyone involved in the Titan sub tragedy, are in our thoughts.