R.I.P.

Actor Lew Palter, Who Played Isidor Straus in ‘Titanic,’ Dies at 94

The veteran character actor was also a mainstay of the CalArts School of Theater.

The character actor Lew Palter, whose roles included playing the real-life Macy’s department store magnate Isidor Straus in the movie Titanic, has died at 94. His daughter Catherine Palter told The Hollywood Reporter he died of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles on May 21. Born in New York in 1928, Palter was a veteran of both stage and TV work and played Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Halperin in the 1981 film First Monday in October. He was also a mainstay of the CalArts School of Theater in Santa Clarita, where he served as an acting teacher and later director for more than 40 years. His role in Titanic saw him play the Macy’s department store owner whose wife, Ida, refused to be rescued from the sinking ocean liner to die alongside her husband. Palter’s wife of 64 years, actress Nancy Vawter, died in 2020.