Lee Kinsolving/Sammy Golden

Most characters I encounter in literature I can relate to someone I know or have known, even if the character is "larger than life", a literary exaggeration of reality. But this guy — he's like no one I've ever known. He has an almost robotic manner about him, and even when he's professing his affection for Reenie it's in a weird, mechanistic kind of way.

I don't believe I've seen this actor in any other production so I don't know to what extent his persona in this movie is him or the part he's playing. I realize that Sammy has had a tough ride, what with his mother's sexual foibles and his Jewish race, and maybe one wouldn't expect him to be completely normal. But he strikes me as somewhat weirder than the part would warrant.