American actor of stage and screen. His father was a famous character actor, Maurice Moscovitch who sent his son abroad to study in Paris, Lausanne, and London. Upon returning to the U.S. following his stage debut in Great Britain, he began an active career on the American stage, specializing in highly sophisticated characters. In 1930, he began appearing in films, most often in roles far different from the upper-class types he played on stage, mostly as gangsters and low-lifes. In 1943, he left films and returned full-time to the theatre, where he was active both as an actor and as a director.