NEW YORK - Art D'Lugoff (Duh-LOO'-guhf), who owned the famed Village Gate nightclub in New York City, has died. He was 85.
D'Lugoff died Wednesday at a Manhattan hospital. His brother, Burt D'Lugoff, said a cause of death was not yet known.
D'Lugoff opened the Greenwich Village club in 1958. He hired blacklisted singers Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger and fired Dustin Hoffman as a waiter. Hoffman, then a struggling actor, later said he was so distracted by the performers that he neglected customers.
Other performers included jazz greats John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk.
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The Village Gate closed in 1994.
Beside his brother, D'Lugoff is survived by his wife, Avital Achai, a son and three daughters.