Everyone was talking about the Oscars this weekend, but the most heartwarming Hollywood event of the week actually took place the day before — when comedian, actor, TV creator, host and king of Jewish dad energy, Eugene Levy, was awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
Levy was absolutely verklempt during the event, brimming with emotion and excitement to celebrate the moment with his closest friends and family, including wife Deborah Devine, daughter Sarah Levy, son-in-law Graham Outerbridge and grandson James Eugene — as well as his “American Pie” onscreen son, Jason Biggs (who, we’re always surprised to recall, isn’t Jewish, but is married to a nice Jewish girl, Jenny Mollen). Biggs was standing in for son and “Schitt’s Creek” co-creator Dan Levy, who is shooting an action film in Bulgaria at the moment — which, Eugene noted, would have made for a perfect “Schitt’s Creek” episode.
It was Sarah who gave the first speech of the event, and it was loving, funny and moving. Her dad was swaying backwards and forwards on stage, his eyes a little moist, as she often raised her eyes from the page to glance at him lovingly. She praised her father for being kind, patient and making “a great bagel platter” (we hereby request a Eugene Levy bagel platter!). She joked about how he doesn’t let anyone touch his hair but her son, James, and how growing up, she had to suffer through the repercussions of him getting ready for roles at home, like playing the guitar constantly for his role in “A Mighty Wind.”
Sarah shared that the best lesson he gave her, one of many good ones, was to “put the blinders on” and focus on what’s important and what you want to achieve out of a project and all of life — a lesson she scoffed at as a teenager but which means so much to her now as an adult and “a new parent navigating the working world.” (Levy became a mother in 2022.) She said that Levy taught her and Dan the importance of doing what you love.
“You’ve proven that if you put the blinders on, you can achieve anything, and I only hope that I can show James the same thing as he grows up,” Sarah said, her voice finally breaking with tears, before ending the speech with, “We love you so much and we can’t wait for people to walk all over you.”
“Sarah, listening to you, I think [Eugene is] not only television’s favorite dad, but in real life, [he is] America’s favorite dad,” Steve Nissen of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce surmised, before Catherine O’Hara, who took the stage next, shared that seeing Eugene trying not to break down in tears reminded her of the early days of shooting “Schitt’s Creek,” seeing his children through the screen and trying to hold back happy tears at all that “pride and joy.”
O’Hara, Levy’s longtime collaborator, had many compliments for her friend, saying that “Eugene chose the funniest woman to marry,” and that he is “slow to anger, slow to judge, some of his friends joke that he is just generally slow.” But she said that he is actually just a man who carefully considers everything, listens well and supports his fellow actors “even when he is a leading man.” She also said that “Eugene would be just as happy standing outside the limelight, he’s a very private man,” but that unfortunately, his “immense talent and unassuming lovability is just going to make us want to know [him] more and more.” We wholeheartedly agree.
Giving his own speech, Eugene gave credit to the most important person in his life: “You can’t have your name put on the Hollywood Boulevard without someone having your back, and Deb has had my back for 47 years,” he shared about his wife, also saying that she is the funniest person in their family.
Perhaps the most heartwarming moment of the very wholesome event was when little James, who had been patiently waiting in his stroller, got to take a picture with his mom and grandpa and the newly unveiled star. The love in Eugene’s eyes for his adorable cherubic toddler grandson is palpable in the pictures (as is James’ desire to go back and play with his trucks.)
The Canadian-born Jewish actor recently explored his Jewish heritage in the new season of his show, “The Reluctant Traveler,” when he visited the country where his mother was born, Scotland. His mother’s Ashkenazi family (Eugene has both Bulgarian Sephardi and Polish Ashkenazi roots) stopped there on the road to Canada, escaping their home in Nasielsk, Poland, because they couldn’t afford the full journey across the ocean.
In the episode, Eugene dons a Jewish tartan, named “the kosher tartan,” because it doesn’t mix wool and linen. He visits Ganethill synagogue and wears a tartan kippah as well. He meets with a Jewish Scottish ancestry expert, who shares the stories of the Kudlats family, Eugene’s grandparents and great-grandparents, who are buried in Scotland. He visits their graves, putting stones on their tombstones and honoring two of the “bravest people” he never got to meet.
Eugene shares in the episode that he thinks of his Jewish parents, Rebecca “Betty” and Joseph “Joe,” who both passed away, “every day… there’s always one time in the day when they just kind of, you know, come into mind.”
We’re sure they would have been proud to see their son’s name on this American landmark. Mazel tov Eugene and family. We wish you many more simchas and lots of bagel platters.
