jacob adler wrote of him that he "never smiled" and other contemporaneous accounts concur that he had a difficult personality. finkel's son from his first marriage, abem finkel, became a hollywood scriptwriter. the children from his marriage to emma, bella and lucy finkel, became yiddish actors. bella married paul muni. emma thomashefsky finkel lived partially paralyzed for a number of years, and continued to act in roles that could be played sitting down. she died of complications from her condition in 1929 at age 46.