Yosef "Sefi" Rivlin (; 7 November 1947 – 3 December 2013) was an Israeli actor and comedian. He was best known for his roles in the satire show ' ("Head Cleaning"), the children’s program '' Rega im Dodley'' and its spin-off ''.Israeli actor and comedian Sefi Rivlin passes away at age 66
jpost.com. 4 December 2013.

Personal life and death

Yosef "Sefi" Rivlin born and grew up in Nahalat Yehuda (present-day

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( , "First to Zion") is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area. Founded in 1882 by Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who were ...

). He born to the Rivlin family. He studied acting at the

Beit Zvi Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts, and Theater () is a school of acting and theatre arts, located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan, Israel, established in 1950, and is named after Zvi Klir, who fell in the War of Independence. The ...

School for the Performing Arts. He was married to Rina, with whom he had four children. Rivlin was diagnosed with

laryngeal cancer Laryngeal cancer is a kind of cancer that can develop in any part of the larynx (voice box). It is typically a squamous-cell carcinoma, reflecting its origin from the epithelium of the larynx. The prognosis is affected by the location of the tumo ...

in 2007. In 2010, he announced that he was cured, but in 2012, he underwent further treatment that left him unable to speak. He died in

Sheba Medical Center Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer (), also known as Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel, located in the Tel Aviv District city of Ramat Gan in the Tel HaShomer neighborhood, Israel. In 2025, ''Newsweek'' ranked it as ...

Ramat Gan Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...

at the age of 66 although rumors of his death began to circulate earlier, after the death of Israeli singer

Arik Einstein Arieh Lieb "Arik" Einstein ( ; (3 January 1939 – 26 November 2013) was an Israeli singer, songwriter, actor, comedian and screenwriter. He was a pioneer of Israeli rock music and was named "the voice of Israel." Through both high public and c ...

.Veteran Israeli comedian Sefi Rivlin dies at 66

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

. Accessed 29 January 2024. A memorial ceremony held at Habimah Theater in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

on the morning of the funeral was attended by a large crowd of Israeli entertainers and politicians. Rivlin was buried in the old cemetery of Rishon LeZion.Comedian, actor Sefi Rivlin laid to rest after star-studded funeral
''

''. Accessed 29 January 2024.

Acting career

Rivlin's acting debut was in 1973, when he appeared at the Khan Theater in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Servant of Two Masters ''The Servant of Two Masters'' () is a comedy by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni written in 1746. Goldoni originally wrote the play at the request of actor Antonio Sacco, one of the great Harlequins in history. His earliest drafts had larg ...

, directed by the British-born director Mike Alfreds. He played the part of the

Archie Bunker Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional character from the 1970s American television sitcom ''All in the Family'' and its spin-off '' Archie Bunker's Place'', played by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker, a main character of the series, is a World War II ...

character on ''Itche'' - the Israeli version of ''

All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American sitcoms in the United States, sitcom television series that aired on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes. It was later produced as ''Archie Bunker's Pla ...

'' - and starred in the series ''Sefi'', an Israeli version of Britain's

Mr. Bean ''Mr. Bean'' is a British sitcom created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions and starring Atkinson as the title character. The sitcom consists of 15 episodes that were co-written by Atkinson alongside ...

. He acted in musicals and often emceed children's festivals. Rivlin appeared on the long-running comedy show

Zehu Ze! ''Zehu Ze!'' (, lit. That's it!) is a long-running Israeli entertainment television program, originally produced by Israeli Educational Television (IETV), and broadcast on the Israeli Channel 1 (until 1994) and on Channel 2. The program ran fr ...

. In the 1980s and 1990s, he appeared in a number of films, including director

Avi Nesher Avi Nesher (Hebrew language, Hebrew: אבי נשר; born 13 December 1952) is an Israeli film producer, film director, screenwriter and actor. Biography Avi Nesher was born and raised in Ramat Gan, Israel. The child of a Romanian-born diplomat ...

's HaSodot.

Sports career

He enrolled in the youth football club of Hapoel Rishon LeZion F.C. and later on played in the senior side from 1962 until 1969.

Political activism

A supporter of the

Likud Likud (, ), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement (), is a major Right-wing politics, right-wing, political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon in an alliance with several right-wing par ...

party, he appeared in advertisements for the party in the 1984 national elections. He briefly served on the Rishon LeZion City Council. In 2008, he ran in the

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

to determine the Likud list for the Eighteenth Knesset, but was placed in an unrealistic place on the list.

Awards and recognition

Rivlin won the Israeli Television Academy award. In 2002, he won the Golden Mask prize for lifetime achievement. A Jerusalem Post columnist who interviewed him said: "Watching him is very simply an audience with a comic artist - hour after hour, he creates comedy. In person, he is much funnier than he is on TV. Face to face, his bug eyes and mugging and comic airs, and, above all, his nonstop improvisatory ability, are explosively funny." Upon the news of Rivlin's death, Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...

called Rivlin a “friend and companion” and a "beloved artist who made generations of Israelis laugh with his witty humor.”

Personal life

Rivlin lived in Nahalat Yehuda, a workers'

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

that became a neighborhood in

in 1988. His wife was Rina (née Nathan) and they have three daughters and a son. After Rivlin's death, Adi Zino, the daughter of actress Effi Ben Israel, claimed that Rivlin was her biological father.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivlin, Sefi 1947 births 2013 deaths Footballers from Rishon LeZion People from Rishon LeZion Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts alumni Israeli male film actors Israeli male stage actors Israeli male television actors Israeli male comedians Israeli men's footballers Israeli television personalities Jewish Israeli male actors Jewish Israeli sportspeople Hapoel Rishon LeZion F.C. players Men's association football players not categorized by position Deaths from laryngeal cancer in Israel 20th-century Israeli male actors 21st-century Israeli male actors 20th-century Israeli sportsmen 20th-century Israeli comedians 21st-century Israeli comedians 20th-century Israeli Jews 21st-century Israeli Jews