 His rotund cuteness caused studio head Jack Warner to bestow on Sakall the nickname "Cuddles".Gerő Jenő (later transcribed in English as Jacob Gero) was born in Budapest to a Jewish family.During his schooldays, he wrote sketches for Budapest vaudeville shows under the pen name Szőke Szakáll, meaning "blond beard", in reference to his own beard, grown to make him look older, which he affected when, at the age of 18, he turned to acting.