Maurice Schwartz
Maurice Schwartz or Morris Schwartz (actually Awrom-Moische Schwartz, born May 10, 1889 in Schydatschiw , Austria-Hungary ; died June 15, 1960 in Tel Aviv ) was a Jewish-American actor and theater producer . He was the founder and director of the Yiddish Art Theater in New York and was considered one of the greatest Yiddish actors.
Life
Moische was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Galicia. In 1899 he went to Liverpool with his mother to emigrate to the USA. He was separated from her and lived alone in London for two years, where he earned his living first working in a factory and then as a singer with a cantor . In 1901 his father brought him to New York, where he worked in his clothing factory.
Moische now called himself Morris. At the age of 15 he became an actor and performed with various troops. In 1918 he founded the Yiddish Art Theater, which primarily focused on classical theater plays in the Yiddish language. He worked as an actor in around 150 theater productions - not a few of them his own plays and adaptations - as well as in twenty films and released several records with plays.
He has also written articles on theater, actors, and the art of acting. In addition to Yiddish, he also appeared on English, Spanish and, in Israel, Hebrew stages. Schwartz cultivated an upscale theater culture and distinguished himself from the "trash theater", which was very popular at the time.
Schwartz died in Israel in 1960 and was buried in New York.
Filmography (selection)
as an actor, unless otherwise stated
- 1911: Little Moritz demande Rosalie en mariage
- 1911: Little Moritz enlève Rosalie
- 1924: Jiskor
- 1926: Broken Hearts
- 1932: Uncle Moses (Moses) (Yiddish film)
- 1936: The Man Behind the Mask
- 1939: Tevya (also director and screenplay) (Yiddish film based on Scholem Alejchem , Tewje the milkman )
- 1940: American Shadchen (Yiddish film)
- 1943: Ambassador to Moscow (Mission to Moscow)
- 1951: Island of the Wrathful Gods (Bird of Paradise)
- 1953: Salome (Salome)
literature
- Nina Warnke: Second Avenue. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 5: Pr-Sy. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-476-02505-0 , pp. 406-412.
- Armin A. Wallas (Ed.): Eugen Hoeflich. Diaries 1915 to 1927 . Böhlau, Vienna 1999 ISBN 3-205-99137-0 , pp. 499-503.
Web links
- Maurice Schwartz in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Martin Boris: Once a Kingdom: The Life of Maurice Schwartz and the Yiddish Art Theater. In: Great Artist Series , Chap. 1 online
- Boris Sandler: Maurice Schwartz . Section Tog Tog bay, ed. by The Jewish Daily Forward , June 4, 2015 (Yiddish, with English subtitles and film clips)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schwartz, Maurice |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Schwartz, Moische Awram (real name); Schwartz, Morris |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Jewish-American actor and theater producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1889 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zhydatschiw (Austria-Hungary, today Ukraine) |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 15, 1960 |
| Place of death | Tel Aviv |