Abraham Isaac Sofaer was born on October 1, 1896, in Rangoon, Burma, to Burmese-Jewish parents, and the son of a well-to-do merchant. He was a one-time schoolteacher in both Rangoon and London, before switching gears to acting after a short time. He made his stage debut in 1921 as a walk-on in William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice".
Sofaer scored his first prominent London appearance with "The Green Goddess" in 1925 and, from the 1930s on, alternated between the London and Broadway repertory stages, playing an assortment of Shakespearean roles, including Othello, Lear, and Cassius, among other classical plays. He scored a personal triumph in New York as Benjamin Disraeli opposite Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina" in 1936, and the following year, he directed Ms. Hayes in "The Merchant of Venice", in which he played the title role of "Shylock".
He soon focused on the big screen and made his British film debut with The Dreyfus Case (1930). Subsequent noteworthy British film roles included his judge in A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and as Disraeli in The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947). He was recognized for his bulgy, wide-eyed stare, resonant tones, and imposing stance, and built up a solid reputation over the years playing odd and interesting Eastern ethnics, including sultans, swamis, high priests, witch doctors, foreign dictators, and dignitaries, and even convincing playing Indian chiefs on occasion.
His characters ranged from wise and warm-hearted to cunning and wickedly evil. In the mid-1950s, Sofaer settled in Hollywood, where he became a main staple in exotic dramas and costumed adventure, appearing almost exclusively in movies and TV. Some of his better-known U.S. films include Quo Vadis (1951),His Majesty O'Keefe (1954),Elephant Walk (1954),Taras Bulba (1962),and Chisum (1970).
Throughout the 1960s, he could be counted on for guest appearances on all the popular shows of the day, including Perry Mason (1957),Wagon Train (1957),Gunsmoke (1955),Daniel Boone (1964),and Star Trek (1966). On TV, he may be best remembered for his recurring role of Haji, the master of all genies, on I Dream of Jeannie (1965).
Married to wife Angela for nearly seven decades and affectionately called "Abe" to closer friends, Sofaer was the father of six children. He retired from acting in 1974 and died of congestive heart failure at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 91 in 1988.
