Taffey Lewis was the owner of the Snake Pit in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, played by Hy Pyke. His club stood in the Fourth Sector of Los Angeles, and in November 2019 it employed the fugitive replicant Zhora as a snake dancer. When Rick Deckard came asking about artificial snakes, Taffey denied everything and sent him off with a free drink. Zhora died in the street that same night, and Taffey kept the Snake Pit open and famous for decades afterward.
Biography
At The Snake Pit
Taffey Lewis owned and ran the Snake Pit, a crowded nightclub in the Fourth Sector of Los Angeles. He held court from a seat at the end of his own bar, where he could watch the room and the stage. His acts included the snake dancer billed as Miss Salome, in reality the Nexus-6 assassin Zhora, who had come to Earth with the escaped group led by Roy Batty. Her python was an artificial animal, and the maker Abdul Ben-Hassan had sold it to Taffey for the act.
Meeting Deckard At The Bar
In November 2019, a scale from Leon Kowalski's hotel bathtub led Deckard to Ben-Hassan, and Ben-Hassan's sales record led him to Taffey. Deckard found Taffey at the bar and asked about his use of artificial snakes. Taffey denied it flatly and insisted that he used only real ones. Deckard's threats did nothing to shake him, and Taffey dismissed the blade runner with a free drink and left him at the bar. Deckard stayed in the club, called Rachael from the bar, and then went backstage to find Miss Salome on his own.
After Zhora
Later that night Deckard retired Zhora after she fled the club and ran through the rain-soaked streets of the Fourth Sector. The killing of a dancer from his own stage could have ruined the Snake Pit, but Taffey used the scandal instead. The performer's later exposure as one of the fugitive Nexus-6 conspirators behind the 2019 Tyrell Corporation murder spree gave the club an infamy that worked as free publicity. By 2037 Taffey still owned the Snake Pit, which had become a sensation known for strong drinks and the best stage performers in the city.
Personality
Taffey was a hard, unflappable club owner who was not intimidated by a police badge. When Deckard showed him the photograph of Zhora, he glanced at it and claimed he had never seen her, even though she danced on his own stage. He lied about the artificial snake just as easily, shrugged off Deckard's threats from his relaxed seat at the end of the bar, and closed the conversation on his own terms with a drink on the house. He was also a businessman first, and he turned the worst night in his club's history into the thing that made it famous. By 2037 the retired dancer's story had become part of the Snake Pit's legend on Nightclub Row, and Taffey was still selling it.
Other Appearances
Marvel's Super Special #22 adaptation leaves Taffey out entirely, with the snake scale leading Deckard through a dealer straight to Zhora's nightclub act and no conversation with the club's owner at the bar. He never appears in person in Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner, which runs parallel to the film, but his club is still there on Nightclub Row under a sign reading only Taffy Lewis', where Ray McCoy can visit and the comedian Gordo Frizz performs after being brought on to replace the main act after Zhora's death.
Free League's Blade Runner RPG keeps Taffey in business in its 2037 Los Angeles, with the Snake Pit on Nightclub Row in the Sector 1 entertainment district. The core rulebook describes it as a variety club infamous for its strong drinks, five-star entertainment and sordid history, and credits its owner with turning a retired performer's notoriety into free publicity. The club appears on the book's Sector 1 case table, and the rules use Taffy Lewis himself as an example, questioned by a blade runner about a suspected Nexus-8 seen at his bar.
Behind The Scenes
Taffey Lewis was played by Hy Pyke, a longtime comic, stage performer and character actor. Paul M. Sammon's Future Noir records that Pyke was first sent to read for a bartender at Taffey's club, memorized the Taffey part while waiting all day for Ridley Scott, and won the role after standing up to producer Michael Deeley, whom he had mistaken for an underling. He built Taffey as a composite of the nightclub owners he had performed for, and his idea was to plant Taffey at the end of the bar, where such owners sat to watch their bar, their show and their club. Scott was known for shooting many takes, but he filmed Pyke's master shot in two takes and his close-up in one, telling a surprised crew that when he saw perfection the first time, he took it.
The Westwood game spells the name Taffy, and the Blade Runner RPG uses both spellings. The Marvel adaptation of the film skips the bar scene and Taffey with it. Earlier drafts of the script set this scene in a decrepit opera house instead of a nightclub, and the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles was scouted for it. The Snake Pit interiors were filmed on Soundstage 25 at Warner Bros., on the same set used for J.F. Sebastian's apartment.
Conclusion
Taffey Lewis had only a brief scene in Blade Runner, but he stood between Deckard and Zhora for one more drink. He lied about the snake, survived the scandal, and was still selling strong drinks at the Snake Pit almost two decades later.
Appearances
- Blade Runner (1982)
- Blade Runner (Westwood Studios, 1997, mentioned)
- Blade Runner RPG (Free League)
Tag Categories: Blade Runner Lore | Blade Runner Characters
