Nehemiah Persoff
Nehemiah Persoff | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | April 5, 2022 San Luis Obispo, California, U.S. | (aged 102)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1948–1999 |
Spouse |
Thia Persov
(m. 1951; died 2021) |
Children | 4 |
Signature | |
Nehemiah Persoff (August 2, 1919 – April 5, 2022) was an American actor and painter. He appeared in more than 200 television series, films, and plays in a career spanning over 50 years, beginning after World War II.
Early life
Born in Jerusalem, Israel on August 2, 1919,[1][2] Nehemiah Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929 and graduated from the Hebrew Technical Institute in 1937.[3] Persoff was drafted by the United States Army in early 1942 and served during World War II until 1945. He was assigned to an acting company to entertain troops around the world.[4] After the war, he worked as a subway electrician, maintaining signals while he began to pursue his acting career in New York theatre. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actors Studio, and was one of the 26 members of the beginners' class taught by Elia Kazan, along with James Whitmore and Julie Harris. He began his acting career in 1948.[5][6]
Acting career
Among his early film roles was the driver during the I coulda been a contender scene in On the Waterfront (1954), Leo the accountant in The Harder They Fall with Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger (1956), and the gangster boss Little Bonaparte, a parody of Little Caesar in Billy Wilder's film classic Some Like It Hot (1959),[7] and he appeared again with Steiger in Al Capone (1959). He also appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Comancheros (1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). In the film Yentl (1983), Persoff portrayed the father of Barbra Streisand's character. He appeared in the comedy film Twins (1988) and in the American Tail animated-film series as Papa Mousekewitz. His last movie was 4 Faces (1999), the last film to be directed by Ted Post.
His many television credits include Five Fingers ("The Moment of Truth"), The Big Valley ("Legend of a General", Parts I & II, episode), Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Heart of Gold" episode), The Twilight Zone ("Judgment Night"), The Untouchables (six episodes, including three episodes as Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, regarded by many as his signature role[8]), Naked City, Route 66 (two episodes), Seaway ("Last Voyage" episode, 1965), The Legend of Jesse James, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Gunsmoke, Columbo ("Now You See Him..."), Gilligan's Island (as the title character in the episode "The Little Dictator", the favorite episode of the show's creator Sherwood Schwartz[9]), The Wild Wild West, The High Chaparral ("Fiesta" episode, 1970), Hawaii Five-O (seven episodes), Cannon, Ellery Queen ("The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse" episode), Mission: Impossible (three episodes), Adam-12 ("Vendetta" episode), The Mod Squad, Barney Miller (three episodes), and Star Trek: The Next Generation, ("The Most Toys" 1990). He appeared as the Eastern Alliance Leader in the Battlestar Galactica episode, "Experiment in Terra" (1979).
Personal life and death
Persoff retired from acting in 1999 and pursued painting, specialising in watercolours. Before his death, he lived in Cambria, California.[10] His wife, Thia Persov, who he married in 1951, died in 2021 due to cancer.[11][12] They had four children.
He died on April 5, 2022, at the age of 102 of heart failure.[13][11]
Selected filmography
Film and television
References
- ^ International Television & Video Almanac (2007), pg. 366
- ^ This former Hollywood movie star living in Cambria just celebrated his 100th birthday
- ^ "Hebrew Technical Institute Graduation Program". December 6, 2011 – via Flickr.
- ^ Tugend, Tom (October 5, 2021). "Jewish character actor Nehemiah Persoff looks back at ups and downs of his first 102 years". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
- ^ Shadrak, Herbert (March 26, 2010). "Nehemiah Persoff: From Jerusalem to Hollywood – and Beyond". Cinema Retro. Retrieved May 10, 2014.
- ^ Staggs, Sam (2005). When Blanche Met Brando: The Scandalous Story of "A Streetcar Named Desire". St. Martin's Press. p. 43. ISBN 9780312321642. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
- ^ Jeffrey Meyers: The Genius and the Goddess: Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe. University of Illinois Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-252-03544-9, p. 193.
- ^ "Exclusive! Interview with acclaimed actor nehemiah persoff - Cinema Retro". cinemaretro.com.
- ^ Cantor, Paul A. (July 15, 2011). "What 'Gilligan's Island' creator Sherwood Schwartz was saying about democracy". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Nehemiah Persoff retired from screen to canvas". Senior Voice. Retrieved June 12, 2017.
- ^ a b Berger, Joseph (April 6, 2022). "Nehemiah Persoff, Actor With a Familiar Face (and Voice), Dies at 102" – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ "At 102, SLO County actor and painter Nehemiah Persoff adds a new title — author". San Luis Obispo Tribune. Retrieved September 4, 2021.
- ^ Evans, Greg (April 6, 2022). "Nehemiah Persoff Dies: Prolific Actor Of 'Yentl', 'The Twilight Zone', 'Gunsmoke' & Many More Was 102". Deadline.com. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
External links
- Nehemiah Persoff at IMDb
- Nehemiah Persoff at the Internet Broadway Database
- Nehemiah Persoff Paintings
- Nehemiah Persoff discography at Discogs
- 1919 births
- 2022 deaths
- American people of Palestinian-Jewish descent
- American male film actors
- American male television actors
- American male voice actors
- American male painters
- United States Army personnel of World War II
- 20th-century American painters
- 21st-century American painters
- 21st-century male artists
- Artists from New York City
- Military personnel from New York City
- Mandatory Palestine emigrants to the United States
- Electricians
- Jews in Mandatory Palestine
- Jewish American male actors
- Jewish painters
- Male actors from Jerusalem
- United States Army soldiers
- Western (genre) television actors
- American centenarians
- Men centenarians
- 21st-century American Jews