David Opatoshu

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David Opatoshu (born January 30, 1918 in New York City , New York , † April 30, 1996 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American film and stage actor and screenwriter .

Life

David Opatoshu comes from a Jewish family; his father was the Polish writer Joseph Opatoshu . He grew up in New York, where he impersonated first roles in the Yiddish theater from the late 1930s . He played his first role on Broadway in 1940 in the drama Night Music . Nine other plays followed, of which Still Stockings ran the longest, and between February 1955 and April 1956 was performed a total of 478 times.

In 1939 he stood in front of the film camera for the first time in The Light Ahead . It was a special film because it was shot exclusively in Yiddish . From 1941 to 1945 he read on WEVD , a New York radio station that broadcast news exclusively in Yiddish. After around two decades, during which Opatoshu had mostly worked in theatrical film adaptations, he stood in front of the camera in Exodus in 1960 , one of his few feature films. His repertoire of television series included Spaceship Enterprise , Daktari and Perry Mason . In 1991 he won the Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the short-lived television series Gabriel's Fire . In 1971 he wrote the screenplay for the film Romance of a Horsethief , in which he was seen in a supporting role.

Opatoshu was married to social worker Lillian Weinberg from 1941 until his death. Her son Danny Opatoshu , who worked as a screenwriter in the 1970s, is married to Anne Spielberg, sister of Steven Spielberg . David Opatoshu died in April 1996 at the age of 78.

Filmography (selection)

presentation

script

  • 1971: A guy to steal horses (Il romanzo di un ladro di cavalli)
  • 1982: Get Crazy

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Opatoshu, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1996
Place of death Los Angeles , California