Celia Feinman Adler (December 6, 1889 – January 31, 1979) was an American actress, known as the "First Lady of the Yiddish Theatre".

Early life

Tzirele Adler was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on December 6, 1889, to daughter of Jacob Adler and Dinah Shtettin, who were both actors in the Yiddish theater."Celia Adler Forman" (1995). ''Dictionary of American Biography''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. From a young age, she was referred to as Celia. She was the half-sister of

Stella Adler Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher. A member of Yiddish Theater's Adler dynasty, Adler began acting at a young age. She shifted to producing, directing, and teaching, founding the ...

, Luther Adler, and Jacob Adler's five other children. Unlike Stella and Luther, who became well known for their work with the Group Theater and their film work and as theorists of the craft of acting, she was almost exclusively a stage actress. Celia's mother, Dinah Shtettin, was the second wife of Jacob Adler, whose first wife had died. The couple had met and married in London, and they arrived in the United States from there shortly before Celia's birth. They divorced when Celia was a young child when Adler eloped with Sara Heine, although they continued to work together in the theater. Shtettin subsequently married the actor and playwright Sigmund Feinman, and Celia was raised by her mother and stepfather. Needing work, Shtettin continued to work with Adler's troupe and brought Celia onstage as a prop at as young as six months old. When Celia was four, she acted in The Yiddish King Lear alongside her father and step-mother, in a role playwright Jacob Gordin had written specifically for her. Celia used her stepfather's last name when she was growing up but later changed her name to "Adler" for her stage career.

Career

After playing many child roles in the

Yiddish theater Yiddish theatre consists of plays written and performed primarily by Jews in Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi Jewish community. The range of Yiddish theatre is broad: operetta, musical comedy, and satiric or nostalgic revues; melodrama; na ...

, Adler distanced herself from the theater for a time during her teenage years, but then resumed her acting career in 1909 as Celia Feinman with the encouragement of the actress Bertha Kalisch, with whom she co-starred in a production of

Hermann Sudermann Hermann Sudermann (30 September 1857 – 21 November 1928) was a German dramatist and novelist. Life Early career Sudermann was born at Matzicken, a village to the east of Heydekrug in the Province of Prussia (now Macikai, in southwestern ...

's play ''

Heimat ''Heimat'' () is a German word translating to 'home' or 'homeland'. The word has connotations specific to German culture, German society and specifically German Romanticism, German nationalism, German statehood and regionalism so that it h ...

''. Adler acted alongside her mother in the

London Pavilion The London Pavilion is a building on the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street on the north-east side of Piccadilly Circus in London. It is currently a shopping arcade and part of the Trocadero Centre. Early history The first buil ...

Theatre, and they toured together in 1910. When she was hired by Boris Thomashefsky as an understudy for the New York People’s Theater, and she signed on as Celia Adler. Her first several years of acting were difficult, as she moved between temporary contracts in the male-dominated field. Adler's first major dramatic success was in Ossip Dymou's “The Eternal Wanderer,” at Boris Thomashefsky's National Theater in New York in 1913. In 1918, she was hired by the

Yiddish Art Theater The Yiddish Art Theatre was a Yiddish theatre company of the 20th century in New York City. The organization was founded in 1918 by actor and impresario Maurice Schwartz, to present serious Yiddish drama and works from world literature in Yiddis ...

, which put on as many as thirty-five plays per season and relied on actors ad-libbing their lines. Adler was typically cast as a weeping maiden or desperate mother. Adler and

Jacob Ben-Ami Jacob Ben-Ami (; November 23 or December 23, 1890, Minsk, Russian Empire – July 2, 1977, New York City, New York (state), New York, United States) was a noted Belarusian-born Jewish stage actor who performed equally well in Yiddish and English. ...

convinced director Maurice Schwartz to stage a serious drama, which was an instant hit, but did not ultimately change Schwartz's directing style. Because of this, in 1919, Ben-Ami separated into the Jewish Art Theater, which Adler joined. This theater Jewish playwrights and Yiddish translations of English, Russian, and German plays at the Irving Palace Theater. The next year, she, along with and others, left to create the Jewish Art Theater. However, this theater was short-lived due to a conflict with the financial backer. In 1921-22, Adler was the leading lady in Schwartz's troupe. the next year, she was a guest star in Philadelphia with Anshel Schorr and touring Europe and America with

Ludwig Satz Ludwig Satz (18 February 1891 – 31 August 1944) was an actor in Yiddish theater and film, best known for his comic roles. A 1925 ''New York Times'' article singles him out as the greatest Yiddish comic actor of the time. He was born in L ...

. In 1927-28, she directed her own repertory company. The next year, she re-encountered her childhood acquaintance theater manager and actor Jack Cone, who suggested he marry her so he could join her on her journey to perform in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

and appease her fear of traveling alone. During her career, Adler created leading roles in Yiddish versions of many classic plays, including the work of

Hauptmann () is an officer rank in the armies of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It is usually translated as ''captain''. Background While in contemporary German means 'main', it also has, and originally had, the meaning of 'head', i.e. ' literall ...

, Sudermann,

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

, Shaw and

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

. As Yiddish-language theater became less popular with the dispersal of the Jewish community and decrease in Yiddish-speakers, Adler made her loyalty to the genre clear; when she acted in an English version of David Pinski's ''The Treasure'', she wrote a letter in the ''Yiddish World'' assuring her fans that this was temporary. After World War II, Adler was contracted by the Jewish Welfare Board to entertain troops in American military camps with an English and Yiddish program that she later brought off-Broadway. In 1946, Adler gave one of the first theatrical portrayals of a

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

survivor in Luther Adler's Broadway production '' A Flag Is Born'' (written by

Ben Hecht Ben Hecht (; February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write 35 books and some of the most enjoyed screenplays and play ...

and featuring a 22-year-old

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004) was an American actor. Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th century,''Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia''

, Stella Adler's prize pupil in

method acting Method acting, known as the Method, is a range of rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, understanding, and expe ...

). Adler, along with co-stars

Paul Muni Paul Muni (born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund; September 22, 1895 – August 25, 1967) was an American stage and film actor from Chicago. He started his acting career in the Yiddish theater and during the 1930s, he was considered one of ...

and

, refused to accept compensation above the Actor's Equity minimum wage because of her commitment to the cause of creating a Jewish State in Israel. While this play was expected to run for a month, it lasted thirty weeks. Adler's last appearance on stage was in 1961 in ''A Worm in Horseradish.'' After her death, she continued to occasionally act at recitals, benefits, and lectures until her death.

Film

In 1937, Celia Adler starred in the

Henry Lynn Henry Lynn (July 21, 1895 – August 25, 1984) was a film director, screenwriter, and film producer, producer, who concentrated on Yiddish life and culture in the United States in the years 1932–1939, the era of Yiddish film in America. Lynn w ...

Yiddish film, ''Where Is My Child''. From 1937-1952, she appeared in several films and television programs. Her last film was a 1985 British documentary with archive footage, ''Almonds and Raisins'', narrated by, among others,

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

, Herschel Bernardi and Seymour Rechzeit.

Personal life

She was married three times, to actor Lazar Freed, theatrical manager Jack Cone, and businessman Nathan Forman. She and Freed married in 1914; they had one child, Selwyn (Zelig) Freed and divorced in 1919. In 1930 Adler married Cone, who was her manager at the time; he died in 1959. Later that same year she married Forman, who died just one month before Adler, in 1979.

Death

Adler is buried in the Yiddish Theatre Section of Mount Hebron Cemetery in

having died from a stroke. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More than 14000 Famous Persons, Scott Wilson

References

External links

* * Judith Laikin Elkin
Celia Adler
Jewish Women Encyclopedia * *
Adler Family Papers.
P-890;

American Jewish Historical Society The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...

, Boston, MA and New York, NY. {{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Celia 1889 births 1979 deaths Burials at Mount Hebron Cemetery (New York City) American stage actresses American television actresses Jewish American actresses Actresses from New York City Yiddish theatre performers 20th-century American actresses American film actresses