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Samson Moses (March 19, 1944, Bangalore, India -- June 21, 2016, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was an Indian-born Canadian actor, dancer, and musical theatre performer.1 He is best known to Ghostbusters fans as the Hot Dog Vendor in Ghostbusters (1984), and more broadly as a recognizable character actor in Canadian film and television across more than five decades.
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Moses was born on March 19, 1944, in Bangalore, India, the youngest of eleven children in an Orthodox Jewish family that had originally fled Baghdad and settled in India.1 His twin brother Ralph was born alongside him.1 His father, George, was a tailor of some distinction; according to family accounts, he made suits for Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.1 The family immigrated to Canada in 1954, settling in Vancouver when Sam was ten years old.1
In Vancouver, Moses discovered a passion for dance. He studied ballet on scholarship under Kay Armstrong from 1960 to 1962.1 His talent earned him a full scholarship to the National Ballet School in Toronto, where he trained rigorously.1 He went on to dance professionally with the National Ballet of Canada for two years beginning around age 20.1 As his career developed, Moses sought more expressive performance outlets than classical ballet alone could offer, and he transitioned into musical theatre and on-screen acting.
He met his wife, Anne Steele, while both were at the National Ballet School.1
Moses built a career as a genuine triple threat: a trained dancer, singer, and actor who could move fluidly between stage, film, and television. By the end of his career he had appeared in over fifty film and television productions.1
On stage, he was particularly celebrated in musical theatre. His most cherished role was Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, which he performed multiple times including a notable 2004 production.1 He also played Zach in A Chorus Line in Toronto in 1985 and Judas in Godspell, among many other stage credits.1
His screen career included a sustained presence in Canadian television. He appeared in the Toronto-set crime drama Night Heat in 1985,2 took a recurring role across four episodes of the beloved series Due South (1995-1996),2 and appeared in two episodes of the anthology crime series during its initial run. He also sustained himself through commercial work, including a high-profile Spumante Bambino wine advertisement that was well remembered in Canadian markets.1
In feature films, Moses appeared in Adventures in Babysitting (1987), in which he played Dr. Nuhkbane,2 and later in Expect No Mercy (1995) and 16 Blocks (2006).2 In 2014 he appeared in the romantic comedy What If, shot in Toronto with Daniel Radcliffe.2
Moses appeared as the Hot Dog Vendor in Ghostbusters (1984), directed by Ivan Reitman. The Hot Dog Vendor is a street vendor seen in New York City whose interaction with Peter Venkman during the climactic sequence of the film includes the memorable line Venkman delivers to the possessed Dana Barrett: "What a lovely singing voice you must have." The same distinctive line recurs in Expect No Mercy (1995), in which Moses himself plays a character named Albert Goldberg; a torturer in the film uses the same remark after coercing a government official. The echo is noted as a curious callback in Moses's filmography.
His credit as Hot Dog Vendor is confirmed in the film's end credits and in contemporaneous press materials.3
Sam Moses died in Toronto on June 21, 2016, at the age of 72, from complications arising from Legionnaires' disease.1 He was survived by his wife Anne, two sons including Karim (born 1971 in Vancouver) and Ari, and a daughter named Julia who had been adopted out at birth and reunited with him in 1992.1
Langan, Fred (2016). "Sam Moses: Canadian actor had a familiar face on stage and screen," The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/sam-moses-canadian-actor-had-a-familiar-face-on-stage-and-screen/article30864123/ Accessed 2026-06-13. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15
IMDb, "Sam Moses" (nm0608623), https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0608623/, accessed 2026-06-13. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5
Ghostbusters (1984), Columbia Pictures. End credits: "Hot Dog Vendor: Sam Moses." Credit text confirmed in Spook Central cast-document scan (gb1_book_novel_milne.pdf), which reproduces the film's cast list. ↩
