He was 102. "But at this time in my life, I love solving problems on the canvas; trying to find the beauty and essence of a subject," he said. Mr. Persoff once said he loved working on The Untouchables because he could lock horns with Elliot Ness, the federal agent played with righteous hauteur by Robert Stack. >> Read more trending news . " If Im playing a good guy, Ill try to show that he has some bad in him, he once said. Listening to him, via Zoom, was a reporter, himself 96 years old. Persoff is still alive as of mid-January 2022. Discovered by Charles Laughton and cast in his production of "Galileo" in 1947, Persoff made his film debut a year later with an uncredited bit in The Naked City (1948).Short, dark, chunky-framed and with a distinct talent for dialects, Persoff became known primarily for his ethnic villainy, usually playing authoritative Eastern Europeans.In a formidable career which had him portraying everything from cab drivers to Iosif Stalin, standout film roles would include Leo in The Harder They Fall (1956) with Humphrey Bogart, Gene Conforti in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1956), Albert in The Sea Wall (1957) and gangster Johnny Torrio in Al Capone (1959). 10/30/62), Los Angeles. His unparalleled acting career has taught him a thing or two about life, which he elaborates on in his book. Nehemiah Persoff Family Background & Career. Yet there is a price to pay for everything My understanding at this point is that the actor should not have to live the part Acting is a distillation of certain moments in life, but its not life itself., But looking back, I am so happy that I became an actor. Among the latter, he cited the time he played the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and started acting like him at home, ordering his family around and barking at the children. On stage, the actor has to project vocally so he can be heard in the last seats of the balcony. Wind at My Back The Fever. Nehemiah Persoff, best known for his roles in Yentl and Some Like It Hot, has died at the age of 102. The great character actor Nehemiah Persoff, whose many roles included the mobster 'Little Bonaparte' in Some Like It Hot, has died at the grand old age of 102. . Cookies collect information about your preferences and your device and are used to make the site work as you expect it to, to understand how you interact with the site, and to show advertisements that are targeted to your interests. Photo: ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty, Richard Belzer, 'Law & Order: SVU' Star, Dead at 78, Barbra Streisand Mourns Yentl Costar Nehemiah Persoff After His Death at 102: 'I'll Miss You Papa', Our Favorite (Underrated!) Some of his more legendary TV roles during that time included on The Untouchables, The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Marcus Welby, M.D., Baretta, The Six Million Dollar Man, Little House on the Prairie, Hawaii Five-0 and Star Trek: The Next Generation., Not just a star on the small screen, the prolific dramatist appeared in a slew of hit films as well, including Humphrey Bogarts final movie roleThe Harder They Fall(1956), Some Like It Hot, The Greatest Story Ever Told and Yentl, in which he portrayed Mendel, the father of Barbra Streisands titular character. Nehemiah Persoff Birthday. Nehemiah Persoff on 'Gilligan's Island' / CBS Persoff starred in a 1965 episode of the show called "The Little Dictator." He was born on August 2nd, 1919, and sadly, his appearanceon Gilligan's Islandwas only a one-off thing. The Israeli-born performer, who died Tuesday from heart failure in his home of San Luis Obispo, California, at the age of 102, appeared in more than 200 stage and screen roles during his lifetime. Nehemiah Persoff, known for his roles in Some Like It Hot, Gunsmoke, An American Tail and various other movies and TV series, died at the age of 102, multiple outlets report. He appeared on such durable series of the 1950s, 60s and 70s as Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Route 66, Gilligans Island, Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O and Columbo, and he continued into the 1990s, with parts on Law & Order and Chicago Hope.. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actors Studio and . Persoff's son Dan confirmed his father's death to The Hollywood Reporter, while a family friend confirmed the news to Deadline. Persoff spent most of his fortune visiting the neighborhood movie theater. Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine [now Jerusalem, Israel], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. Nehemiah Persoff, Jewish character actor who played over 200 roles, dies at 102 Persoff was adept at portraying gangsters and other assorted no-goodniks in classics such as 'Some Like It Hot'. He kept painting until the last week of his life. Nehemiah Persoff, an actor who went from the uncredited role of a cab driver in On The Waterfront's iconic "coulda been a contender" scene to become one of the busiest character actors in television and film . 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Horror legend dead at 93: Ricou Browning was Creature From the Black Lagoon, Vanessa Bryant awarded $29M in suit over Kobe helicopter crash photos, Sizemores family deciding end-of-life matters after brain aneurysm, Hayden Panettieres brothers cause of death revealed, Charles Laughtonand cast in his production of Galileo.. It was true that Persoff was a centenarian. Persoff received his first film credit in 1948 for his brief role in The Naked City and his second in 1954 for another small role in On the Waterfront. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. He lived in the town of Cambria on the central Californian coast. Nehemiah Persoff, an actor who went from the uncredited role of a cab driver in On The Waterfront 's iconic "coulda been a contender" scene to become one of the busiest character actors in. Known for his roles in such classic films as Some Like It Hot (as "Little Bonaparte") and Yentl (as Rebbe Mendel). His unparalleled acting career has taught him a thing or two about life, which he elaborates on in his book. Over five decades in the industry, Persoff appeared in a variety of films including Humphrey Bogart's final film The Harder They Fall (1956), Some Like It Hot (1959), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), The People Next Door (1970), Psychic Killer (1975), Yentl with Barbra Streisand (1983) Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Twins (1988) and 4 Faces (1999). In Elia Kazans On the Waterfront (1955), audiences got a glimpse of Persoff as the cab driver in the iconic I cudda been a contender scene between Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger. A Word on Westerns 131K subscribers 247K views 11 months ago REMEMBERING NEHEMIAH. How . I guess I was born an actor.. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Born in 1919 in Jerusalem, Nehemiah Persoff emigrated with his family to America in 1929. She said, Lets read,' he recalled in a 2008 interview forFilmsof the Golden Age. Persoff also voiced Papa Mousekewitz in the 1986 animated film An American Tail and its three subsequent films, which were among his final film credits ahead of his 1999 retirement. Persoff retired from acting in 1999 to concentrate on painting, working in an outdoor studio space at his Cambria home near the California coast. You can find out more and change our default settings with Cookies Settings. I couldve been a somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am.. Nehemiah Persoff was a Jewish-American actor who worked frequently as an actor in the 40s, 50s and 60s, appearing in more than 200 television series, films, and plays in a career spanning over 50 years, beginning after World War II. MikaelaArsenault. He and Thia Persoff married in 1951 and became parents to four children. A family friend confirmed the screen icon's passing. He was awarded the 1975 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Performance in a Supporting Role for "The Dybbuk" at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre in Los Angeles, California. After work in summer stock, Persoff, in 1947, received an invitation to come to the first meeting of the new Actors Studio, led by Kazan. It paid him $38 a week, more than his father earned. A family friend confirmed the screen icons passing in a statement to Deadline. After moving to Cambria, he became acquainted with a group of painters and has shown considerable talent and has found peace in his new art form. >> Read more trending news Persoff. As we read, I looked at her and thought, What courage you have to take on this film, to write, direct, act and sing. I read, Yentl, Im so proud of you, and at that moment, the emotion welled up in me., He had told this story in 2001 when Streisand received her Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. As of his centenary in August 2019 he and his wife. Nehemiah Persoff, a charter member of the Actors Studio who appeared in dozens of notable films and TV shows, from Some Like It Hot and On the Waterfront to The Twilight Zone and The. Now, with some 200 stage, film and television credits on his resume, including roles in screen classics Some Like It Hot, Yentl, The Wrong Man and An American Tail, Persoff sits in an easy chair propping up his legs at his home in the California coastal community of Cambria, recalling the high and low points of a very full life. His initial job at a motor repair shop earned him just a handful of dollars, but he upped this to a princely $35 a week when he landed a job as a New York subway electrician. I was in heaven., Nearly a century later, the now-102-year old reminisced, I learned then that I could make people believe my exaggerations and make fiction accepted as truth. Nehemiah Persoff, a ubiquitous character actor whose gravelly voice and knack for conveying an air of menace magnified his portrayals of a bevy of sinister types, most notably a half-dozen. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. Actor Nehemiah Persoff, who started out as an uncredited, silent cab driver in the "On the Waterfront" "contender" scene and went on to become a prolific character actor, has died at age 102. Arriving in New York in 1929, at the start of the Great Depression, Persoff and his parents soon discovered that, contrary to mythology, the streets of America were not paved with gold. The actor died on Tuesday in San Luis Obispo, California, after an incredible and wide-ranging . Before his rise to fame, he served in the army in WWII and as a subway technician afterwards. Later stage work included well-received productions of "I'm Not Rappaport" and his biographical one-man show "Sholem Aleichem".After declining health and high blood pressure forced him to slow down, Persoff took up painting in 1985, studying sketching in Los Angeles. Everything in life has taken on a completely different look. At the start of his career, he appeared in uncredited roles in the films The Naked City and But now [since painting] I see the light dancing on the trees, the light of the water and the rocks. You have entered an incorrect email address! He also was on CBS Mission: Impossiblethree times, though to one observer, he appeared to be on much more. At 102 years old, Nehemiah Persoff height Back then, it seemed as if Nehemiah Persoff guest-starred on every other episode of Mission: Impossible, his indefinable all-purpose Russian/East European heavy-on-the-gutturals accent deployed to bark out orders to expressionless, obedient underlings of totalitarian regimes that the MI unit was determined to undermine by futzing around with their electrical wiring and setting Barbara Bains hips into disruptive motion, James Wolcott wrote for Vanity Fair. If I'm playing a bad guy, I'll give him some dignity and love. He appeared with Danny DeVito in the 1988 movie Twins. Nehemiah Persoff - Now Persoff hasn't acted in anything since his final film role in 1999's 4 Faces . Yet there is a price to pay for everything My understanding at this point is that the actor should not have to live the part Acting is a distillation of certain moments in life, but its not life itself., But looking back, I am so happy that I became an actor. 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