--- name: "George Tobias" canonical: "https://film.one/person/george-tobias" roles: ["Actor"] born: "14 July 1901" died: "27 February 1980" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 72 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-20T01:18:55.877195+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # George Tobias Actor. Born 14 July 1901 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 27 February 1980. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 14 July 1901, New York City, New York, USA - **Died:** 27 February 1980 - **Active:** 1941–1942 - **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 2 acting, 2 other - **Frequently works with:** [Joan Leslie](https://film.one/person/joan-leslie.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 72, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 82 (1), 1940s 76 (3) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tobias, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q43883, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864869/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30272 ## Streaming the US now - **Tubi:** [*Sergeant York*](https://film.one/film/sergeant-york.md) (66) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on George Tobias > George Tobias spent thirty years as the friend standing next to the star, a New Yorker who could make a barracks joke or a neighbour's complaint sound like the most reasonable thing anyone had said all day. A small trade, and he was good at it. The best thing in the middle of *Sergeant York* (1941) is a man who does not belong there. Howard Hawks has put Gary Cooper's Tennessee farm boy in a barracks and is busy arguing him into the war, one scene of history and conscience at a time, and into this walks George Tobias as "Pusher" Ross, a New Yorker who has never seen a tree that was not in a park. He is there for comedy, and he supplies it. He also supplies air. We had started to feel preached at, and each time Tobias came through the door we stopped; the film breathes when he is on screen and holds its breath when he is not. That was the job for most of a career. Tobias began at fifteen at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, reached Broadway in 1924 in *What Price Glory?*, and signed with Warner Bros in 1939. He spent the 1940s and 1950s in supporting parts, working-class types for the most part, the friend or sidekick of whoever the picture was actually about. Four of those pictures were with James Cagney. In *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942) he is Dietz, one face among many around Cagney's Cohan, and we will be honest: we did not much notice him. That film belongs to Cagney's dancing and is happy to say so. The cast lists of the next decade tell the same story. He is Tiny in *The Set-Up* (1949) and Si Schribman in *The Glenn Miller Story* (1954), and the names alone say what the studios thought he was for: a corner of the frame that needed filling by someone who would not fuss about it. A Tiny is never the lead. Tobias played him for thirty years without, on the evidence, minding. Television took him in the late 1950s. He was Penrose on *Adventures in Paradise* from 1959 to 1961, and then, from 1964 to 1971, Abner Kravitz on *Bewitched*, the neighbour, long-suffering by trade. It is the part he is best remembered for, and it is the barracks part again with the war taken out and a lawn put in: a plain man surrounded by nonsense, putting up with it. He made a last appearance on *Tabitha* in 1977 and stopped. If you want to see what he did, go to the barracks in *Sergeant York*: half an hour of men making speeches, and one man who appears to have wandered in from a friendlier film. ## Biography George Tobias (1901–1980) was an American actor. Born in New York City, he began his career in theatre and made his Broadway debut in 1924 before signing with Warner Bros. in 1939. He appeared in supporting roles in numerous films of Hollywood's Golden Age, including *Sergeant York* (1941) as 'Pusher' Ross, *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942) and *The Glenn Miller Story* (1954). From 1964 to 1971 he played Abner Kravitz in the television series *Bewitched*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, themoviedb.org.* ## On Fi1m (4) ### Performed in (2) — the average rests on these - *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), Fi1m 78, as Dietz — [page](https://film.one/film/yankee-doodle-dandy.md) - *Sergeant York* (1941), Fi1m 66, as "Pusher" Ross — [page](https://film.one/film/sergeant-york.md) ### Also credited (2) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Mildred Pierce* (1945), Fi1m 83, as Mr. Chris (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/mildred-pierce-1945.md) - *Ninotchka* (1939), Fi1m 82, as Russian Visa Official (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/ninotchka.md) ## Complete filmography (87) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *A Bewitched Christmas* (1994), as Abner Kravitz - *Tabitha* (1977), series, Actor - *Starsky & Hutch* (1975), series, Actor - *Switch* (1975), series, as Ludwig - *The Waltons* (1972), series, Actor - *The Phynx* (1970), as Markevitch - *Tora! Tora! Tora!* (1970), as Captain on Flight Line at Hickam Field (uncredited) - *Love, American Style* (1969), series, as Sam - *Medical Center* (1969), series, Actor - *Mannix* (1967), series, Actor - *The Glass Bottom Boat* (1966), as Norman Fenimore - *Nightmare in the Sun* (1965), as Gideon - *The Man from U.N.C.L.E.* (1964), series, as Harry Parkaginian - *Bewitched* (1964), series, as Abner Kravitz - *The Big Parade of Comedy* (1964), as Actor in 'Ninotchka' (archive footage) (uncredited) - *Bullet for a Badman* (1964), as Diggs - *A New Kind of Love* (1963), as Joe Bergner - *Sam Benedict* (1962), series, Actor - *Adventures in Paradise* (1959), series, as Trader Penrose - *The Rebel* (1959), series, as Sheriff Boyd - *Laramie* (1959), series, Actor - *Tightrope* (1959), series, Actor - *77 Sunset Strip* (1958), series, Actor - *Marjorie Morningstar* (1958), as Maxwell Greech - *The Real McCoys* (1957), series, Actor - *Perry Mason* (1957), series, as Sidney Falconer - *Silk Stockings* (1957), as Vassili Markovitch - *The Tattered Dress* (1957), as Billy Giles - *Telephone Time* (1956), series, Actor - *The Seven Little Foys* (1955), as Barney Green - *Climax!* (1954), series, as Sergeant Levy - *The Glenn Miller Story* (1954), as Si Schribman - *The Danny Thomas Show* (1953), series, as Mike Kelly - *Letter to Loretta* (1953), series, as Henry - *Desert Pursuit* (1952), as Ghazili - *Ten Tall Men* (1951), as Londos - *The Magic Carpet* (1951), as Razi - *The Mark of the Renegade* (1951), as Captain Bardoso - *Rawhide* (1951), as Gratz - *Southside 1-1000* (1950), as Reggie - *Everybody Does It* (1949), as Rossi - *The Set-Up* (1949), as Tiny - *Studio One* (1948), series, as M / Sgt. Al Wirtz - *Adventures of Casanova* (1948), as Jacopo - *My Wild Irish Rose* (1947), as Nick Popolis - *The Judge Steps Out* (1947), as Mike - *Sinbad the Sailor* (1947), as Abbu - *Gallant Bess* (1946), as Lug Johnson - *Nobody Lives Forever* (1946), as Al Doyle - *Her Kind of Man* (1946), as Joe Marino - *Mildred Pierce* (1945), as Mr. Chris (uncredited) — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/mildred-pierce-1945.md) - *Objective, Burma!* (1945), as Cpl. Gabby Gordon - *Make Your Own Bed* (1944), as Boris Fenilise - *Between Two Worlds* (1944), as Pete Musick - *Passage to Marseille* (1944), as Petit - *This Is the Army* (1943), as Maxie Twardofsky - *Mission to Moscow* (1943), as Freddie - *Stars on Horseback* (1943), Actor - *Air Force* (1943), as Asst. Crew Chief - *My Sister Eileen* (1942), as Appopolous - *Wings for the Eagle* (1942), as Jake Hanso - *Juke Girl* (1942), as Nick Garcos, the Greek - *Yankee Doodle Dandy* (1942), as Dietz — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/yankee-doodle-dandy.md) - *Captains of the Clouds* (1942), as Blimp Lebec - *The Tanks Are Coming* (1941), as Malowski - *Sergeant York* (1941), as "Pusher" Ross — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/sergeant-york.md) - *The Bride Came C.O.D.* (1941), as Peewee Defoe - *Out of the Fog* (1941), as Igor Propotkin - *Affectionately Yours* (1941), as Pasha - *The Strawberry Blonde* (1941), as Nicholas Pappalas - *South of Suez* (1940), as Eli Snedeker - *East of the River* (1940), as Tony Scaduto - *City for Conquest* (1940), as 'Pinky' - *Calling All Husbands* (1940), as Oscar Armstrong - *River's End* (1940), as Andy Dijon - *They Drive by Night* (1940), as George Rondolos - *The Man Who Talked Too Much* (1940), as Slug McNutt - *Torrid Zone* (1940), as Rosario La Mata - *Saturday's Children* (1940), as Herbert 'Herbie' Smith - *Music in My Heart* (1940), as Sascha Bolitov - *Balalaika* (1939), as Slaski - *Ninotchka* (1939), as Russian Visa Official (uncredited) — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/ninotchka.md) - *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1939), as Beggar - *They All Come Out* (1939), as Sloppy Joe - *Maisie* (1939), as Rico - *Yes, My Darling Daughter* (1939), as Dock Worker, Edith Colby - *Hudson's Bay*, series, as Pierre Falcon ## Gallery - ![George Tobias](https://film.one/media/person/1231589/gallery-5cb6b071816c.jpg) George Tobias — my own screen capture from public domain trailer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/BiffNicholasStrawbBlonde1941Trailer.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Photo of George Tobias, Julie Newmar and Gardner McKay from the television series Adventures in Paradise. (1960)](https://film.one/media/person/1231589/gallery-b7802a6f7e07.jpg) Photo of George Tobias, Julie Newmar and Gardner McKay from the television series Adventures in Paradise. (1960) — ABC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/George_Tobias_Julie_Newmar_Gardner_McKay_Adventures_in_Paradise_1960.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![George Tobias](https://film.one/media/person/1231589/gallery-70520cfccc63.jpg) George Tobias — Image via TMDB - ![George Tobias](https://film.one/media/person/1231589/gallery-63ba0ef6153b.jpg) George Tobias — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/george-tobias