Fred Sadoff
American actor (1926-1994)

Frederick Edward Sadoff (October 21, 1926 – May 6, 1994) was an American film, stage and television actor.
Early years
Frederick Edward Sadoff was born on October 21, 1926, in California to Russian-Jewish parents Bertha (née Leib) and Henry Sadoff. He had two older brothers, Sidney and Robert.
Career
Sadoff began working in show business as a teenager, when he performed with stock theater companies. His Broadway debut came in the musical South Pacific (1949). He was a founding member and a life member of The Actors Studio, Sadoff also appeared in Camino Real and Wish You Were Here, among other Broadway productions.
Sadoff moved to London to form a production company with Sir Michael Redgrave under the name F.E.S. Plays, Ltd., which presented works including The Importance of Being Oscar which had a short run on Broadway in 1961. While in England, he also worked as a director for the BBC and Rediffusion. In 1958 he became the first American to be assistant director for the Shakespeare Memorial Theater in Stratford on Avon.
Eventually returning to the United States, he found success as an actor in The Poseidon Adventure in 1972 when he was cast as Linarcos, the company representative who ordered Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen) full ahead.
The public source identifies “Fred Sadoff” as american actor (1926-1994). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fred, Sadoff and American.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3752655. VIAF identifies the subject as 70947440. The Library of Congress control number is no90001921. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 1994, 1949 and 1961.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fred Sadoff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.