Ed Asner: Venerable Television Actor Who Won a Record (for a Male) Seven Primetime Emmys
Ed Asner is best known for his roles on ”The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and its spin-off series, “Lou Grant” (among other shows).
Mandy Patinkin: Veteran of Stage, Screen, and Television — and Lover of Yiddish, Too!
Mandel “Mandy” Patinkin (68) is an actor and singer known for his work on stage, screen, and television. Patinkin has appeared in such movies as The Princess Bride, Criminal Minds, Yentl, Alien Nation, and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. He also has had recurring roles in a number of television series, including Homeland, Chicago…
Eugene Levy: From ‘SCTV’ to ‘Best in Show’ to ‘Schitt’s Creek’… Oh, and He’s Dan Levy’s Dad, Too
For half a century, Eugene Levy (74) has been making people laugh. The comedic actor, producer, director, and writer came to prominence on the hilarious Canadian series SCTV and never left the public stage since then. (Levy is Canadian.) He has appeared in many motion pictures, including Best in Show. Today he is most identified…
Tony Randall: Actor Best Known as Felix Unger, the Fastidious, Neurotic Half of ‘The Odd Couple’
Many will be surprised to learn that actor Tony Randall was a Jew, but his birth name was Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg. Randall (Feb. 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was perhaps best known for playing the role of Felix Unger in the television adaptation of the 1965 play “The Odd Couple.” Unger was a world-class…
Julie Taymor: Tony Award-Winning Theater, Opera, and Film Director and Writer
Julie Taymor (68) is a theater, opera, and movie director and writer. Her stage adaptation of The Lion King has been seen by more than 90 million people in 100 cities around the world. It received 11 Tony Award nominations; Taymor garnered Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer. The production has been honored…
Mila Kunis: Ukraine-Born American Actress on Both Small and Big Screens
Actress Milena Markovna “Mila” Kunis (37) was born in the Soviet Ukraine and moved with her family to the United States at age 7, in part because of antisemitism in the former Soviet Union. She is perhaps best known for playing Jackie Burkhart on the television series That ’70s Show (1998–2006), a part she got…
Gal Gadot: Wonder Woman Lands Plum Role of Cleopatra — But Not Without Controversy
Israeli superstar actress Gal Gadot (35) is renowned for her beauty (Miss Israel 2004) and acting chops. In addition to playing Wonder Woman in the 2017 blockbuster film by the same name, Gadot has appeared in several other movies, including Fast & Furious (2009), Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Justice League (2017).…
Mike Nichols: Director Who Won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards
Mike Nichols (Nov. 6, 1931 – Nov. 19, 2014) was an extraordinarily prolific and talented film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. His many directorial film credits include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Graduate (1967), Catch-22 (1970), Carnal Knowledge (1971), Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), The Birdcage (1996), Closer, (2004) and Charlie…
‘Unorthodox’: The Hit TV Miniseries Garners Eight Emmy Nominations
The four-part original Netfleix miniseries Unorthodox became an international hit and has now received eight Emmy Award nominations. The story revolves around Esther “Esty” Shapiro, a young Orthodox woman who eventually leaves her life in the strict Satmar Hasidic sect in which she grew up. The series — much of it in Yiddish with English…
Doris Roberts: Marie Barone on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’
Doris Roberts (November 4, 1925 — April 17, 2016) had a successful acting career on television and in film lasting some six decades. Roberts, who garnered five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, was best known as the overbearing Marie Barone on the popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which aired for nine seasons.…
To learn about these and many more AmazingJews, watch a compilation put together by JewOfTheWeek.net in 2015 and posted on YouTube.