Charles Adler

Biography

Charles Adler, the actor and singer who became famous as part of the comic singing group The Yacht Club Boys, was a member of the Adler acting dynasty. He was the illegitimate son of the great American stage actor Jacob P. Adler, a titan of the Yiddish theater, and actress Jenny Kaiser, whom "The Great Eagle" (as Jacob Adler was known) began having an affair with while still married to his first wife Sonya. Sonya Adler died in 1886 after contracting an infection after giving birth to her son Abram. Charles was born that same year to Jacob's mistress Jenny. Jacob Adler had six children by his third wife Sara, which made Charles the half-brother of of actors Jay Adler, Luther Adler, Stella Adler and Julia Adler. (Luther became an outstanding stage actor in his own right, and Stella helped revolutionize American acting as a teacher, through her most famous pupil, Marlon Brando.) Through Jacob's second wife Dinah Shtettin, Charles was half-brother to actress Celia Adler. As a member of the Yacht Club boys, Charles (or "Charlie" as he was known as a member of the group), appeared in seven motion pictures from 1935 to 1938. As a Yacht Club Boy, he also appeared on Broadway in 1942 in the "novelty" melodrama "Johnny 2 X 4". Five years earlier, he had made his debut on the Great White Way in the musical extravaganza "The Eternal Road", which he followed up a year later with a role in Mike Todd's production of the comedy "The Man From Cairo", a flop. In 1964, he was credited as the dance adviser for the Actor's Studio's heralded production of Anton Chekhov's "The Three Sisters (1966)", directed by Lee Strasberg and starring his half-brother Luther as Chebutykin. Charles Adler died in Florida in 1966.