art.wikisort.org - Artist

Nehemiah Persoff (August 2, 1919 – April 5, 2022) was an American character actor and painter. He appeared in more than 200 television series, films, and theatre productions and also performed as a voice artist in a career spanning 55 years,[1] beginning after his service in the United States Army during World War II.

Nehemiah Persoff
Persoff in 1960
Born	(1919-08-02)August 2, 1919 Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine
Died	April 5, 2022(2022-04-05) (aged 102) San Luis Obispo, California, U.S.
Education	Actors Studio[1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1948–2003
Spouse	Thia Persov ​ ​ (m. 1951; died 2021)​
Children	4
Signature

Persoff got his first part as an extra in The Naked City (1948). He is best known for roles as Leo in The Harder They Fall (1956), as Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot (1959), as Rebbe Mendel in Yentl (1983), and as the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the animated film An American Tail (1986) and its sequels. He also made appearances on episodes of The Twilight Zone, Gilligan's Island, Hawaii Five-O, Adam-12 and Law & Order.

Biography

Early life and training

Persoff was born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, on August 2, 1919, to Puah (née Holman, 1887–1963) and Shmuel Persoff (1885–1961).[2][3][4][5] His father, who was a silversmith, jeweler and art teacher, decided that there were better prospects in the United States and initially emigrated on his own. It was another six years before he was financially secure and was able in 1929 to bring over his wife, three sons, Boaz, Avraham, and Nehemiah, and two daughters, Tamar and Geula (Julia).[6] At first the family lived in an apartment in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, before eventually moving to the Bronx.[2] His parents later returned to Israel.[6]

Persoff attended the Hebrew Technical Institute, graduating in 1937.[7] With the electrician training that he had received at the Institute, after his military service he gained a job as a subway signal maintenance worker[2]

Army service

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.[8]

Acting career

Persoff 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 Martin Balsam, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Cloris Leachman and James Whitmore.[2] He began his acting career in 1948.[9][10]

His first role was an uncredited bit part in the film noir The Naked City (1948).[11]

Among his early film roles was as the taxi driver during Brando's "I coulda been a contender" scene in On the Waterfront (1954),[2] Leo the accountant in The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger,[2] and the gangster boss Little Bonaparte (a parody of Rico/Little Caesar) in Billy Wilder's film Some Like It Hot (1959),[12] and he appeared again with Steiger in Al Capone (also 1959).[2] He also appeared in supporting roles in films such as The Comancheros (1961)[13] and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).[14]

Persoff alongside Dean Stockwell and Andrew Bloch appeared as Darius the Great's wicked Babylonian administrators in the 1978 Greatest Heroes of the Bible episode Daniel in the Lions' Den.[15]

In the film Yentl (1983), Persoff portrayed the father of Barbra Streisand's character.[16] He appeared in the comedy film Twins (1988)[17] and in the American Tail animated-film series as Papa Mousekewitz.[18] His last movie was 4 Faces (1999), the last film to be directed by Ted Post.[19]

His acting career included many appearances in television series, including six episodes of The Untouchables, three episodes of which he appeared as Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik (regarded by many as his signature role),[20] and Gilligan's Island as the title character in the episode "The Little Dictator" (the favorite episode of the show's creator Sherwood Schwartz).[21] Persoff appeared on the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Most Toys" and was the oldest living male actor to appear in a Star Trek production at the time of his death.[22]

Retirement and memoir

Persoff retired from acting in 2003 and pursued painting, specializing in watercolors.[23]

His memoir, The Many Faces of Nehemiah, was published by The Autumn Road Company in July 2021.[24][16]

Personal life and death

In 1951, Persoff married Thia Persov, who had served as a nurse with the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.[2] She died of cancer in 2021. The couple had four children, Jeffrey, Dan, Perry and Dahlia.[2] Before his death, he lived in Cambria, California.^{[citation needed]}

Persoff died on April 5, 2022, at the age of 102 of heart failure at a rehabilitation facility in San Luis Obispo, California.[1][2]

Selected filmography

Film and television

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)
1948	The Naked City[11]	Smiling Man Departing Subway	Jules Dassin
1954	On the Waterfront[2]	Cab Driver	Elia Kazan
1956	The Harder They Fall[2]	Leo	Mark Robson
	The Wrong Man[25]	Gene Conforti	Alfred Hitchcock
	The Wild Party[14]	Kicks Johnson	Harry Horner
1957	Men in War[17]	SFC Nate Lewis	Anthony Mann
	Street of Sinners[26]	Leon	William Berke
	This Angry Age[27]	Albert	René Clément
1958	The Badlanders[28]	Vincente	Delmer Daves
1959	Never Steal Anything Small[29]	Pinelli	Charles Lederer
	Green Mansions[17]	Don Panta	Mel Ferrer
	Some Like It Hot[2]	Little Bonaparte	Billy Wilder
	Al Capone[2]	Johnny Torrio	Richard Wilson
	Day of the Outlaw[30]	Dan	Andre DeToth
	The Twilight Zone Episode: "Judgment Night"[14]	Carl Lanser	John Brahm
1961	The Big Show[14]	Bruno Everard	James B. Clark
	The Comancheros[13]	Graile	Michael Curtiz John Wayne
1963	The Hook[17]	Capt. Van Ryn	George Seaton
1964	A Global Affair[31]	Under Secretary Segura	Jack Arnold
	Fate Is the Hunter[32]	Ben Sawyer	Ralph Nelson
1965	The Greatest Story Ever Told[14]	Shemiah	George Stevens
1965	Gunsmoke[2]	Mr. Dino	Vincent McEveety
1967	Too Many Thieves[33]	Georgi	Abner Biberman
1967	The Wild Wild West[34]|-	Major Hazard	James B. Clark
1968	The Money Jungle[35]	Lt. Dow Reeves	Francis D. Lyon
1968	The Day of the Owl[36]	Pizzuco	Damiano Damiani
1968	The Power[37]	Prof. Carl Melnicker	Byron Haskin
1968	Panic in the City[38]	August Best	Eddie Davis
1969	The Girl Who Knew Too Much[39]	Lt. Miles Crawford	Francis D. Lyon
1970	The People Next Door[40]	Dr. Salazar	David Greene
1971	Mrs. Pollifax-Spy[41]	Berisha	Leslie H. Martinson
	Red Sky at Morning[42]	Amadeo Montoya	James Goldstone
1972	Lapin 360[43]	Unknown	Robert Michael Lewis
1974	The Missiles of October[17]	Andrei Gromyko	Anthony Page
1975	Psychic Killer[40]	Dr. Gubner	Ray Danton
1976	Voyage of the Damned[37]	Mr. Hauser	Stuart Rosenberg
1977	Deadly Harvest[44]	Mort Logan	Timothy Bond
1978	Hawaii Five-O[2] Number One With a Bullet	Allie Francis	Don Weis
1978	Little House on the Prairie - Season 4 - Episode 19 - "The Stranger"	Mr. Lindstrom (Peter's Father)	Michael Landon
1979	In Search of Historic Jesus[45]	Herod Antipas	Henning Schellerup
1981	St. Helens[46]	Mr. Ellison	Ernest Pintoff
1982	O'Hara's Wife[47]	Dr. Fischer	William Bartman
1983	Yentl[2]	Rebbe Mendel (Papa)	Barbra Streisand
1986	An American Tail[18]	Papa Mousekewitz (voice)	Don Bluth
1988	The Last Temptation of Christ[48]	Rabbi	Martin Scorsese
	MacGyver: The Ten Percent Solution	Sam Bolinski	Michael Preece
	Twins[17]	Mitchell Traven	Ivan Reitman
1991	An American Tail: Fievel Goes West[49]	Papa Mousekewitz (voice)	Phil Nibbelink Simon Wells
1998	An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island[50]		Larry Latham
1999	An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster[51]
	4 Faces[19]	Unknown	Ted Post
2003	Angels in America (TV miniseries)	Rabbi (uncredited) (final film role)	Mike Nichols

References

External links

• Nehemiah Persoff at IMDb
• Nehemiah Persoff at the Internet Broadway Database
• Nehemiah Persoff Paintings
• Nehemiah Persoff discography at Discogs

На других языках

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[de] Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff (* 2. August 1919 in Jerusalem; † 5. April 2022 in San Luis Obispo, Kalifornien[1]) war ein US-amerikanischer Schauspieler und Maler. Zwischen 1948 und 1999 spielte er in rund 200 Film- und Fernsehproduktionen, meist in markanten Nebenrollen.

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- [en] Nehemiah Persoff

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[es] Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff (Jerusalén, Administración del Territorio Enemigo Ocupado, 2 de agosto de 1919 - San Luis Obispo, California, Estados Unidos, 6 de abril de 2022[1]) fue un actor y pintor estadounidense de origen israelí.

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[it] Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff (Gerusalemme, 2 agosto 1919 – San Luis Obispo, 5 aprile 2022) è stato un attore e pittore israeliano naturalizzato statunitense.

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[ru] Персофф, Нехемия

Нехемия Персофф (англ. Nehemiah Persoff; 2 августа 1919, Иерусалим[1] — 5 апреля 2022, Сан-Луис-Обиспо) — американский актёр еврейского происхождения[2][3].

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