Jacob Ben-Ami (; November 23 or December 23, 1890,

Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

– July 2, 1977,

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) was a noted Belarusian-born Jewish stage actor who performed equally well in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

and English.

Biography

Ben-Ami was born in 1890 and grew up in Russia, performing in various acting troupes, before emigrating to the United States in 1912. He had a long and distinguished international career, including acting in, staging and directing a number of

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

plays. In 1918, he founded or co-founded the Jewish Art Theatre. Ben-Ami's first English-language production was the 1920 Broadway play ''Samson and Delilah''. According to biographer Alan Gansberg in ''Little Caesar: A Biography of Edward G. Robinson'', Ben-Ami earned fellow cast member

Robinson Robinson may refer to: People and names * Robinson (name) Fictional characters * Robinson Crusoe, the main character, and title of a novel by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719 Geography * Robinson projection, a map projection used since the 19 ...

's disdain by allegedly trying to upstage the other actors and overacting. Both the play and Ben-Ami, however, were hits. In her 1921 review of the production,

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...

proclaimed him "one of the greatest actors on the stage today." He was also lauded by

John Barrymore John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly a ...

("inspired"), ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and

Alexander Woollcott Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic for The New York Times and the New York Herald, critic and commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an ...

("the cocktail question of the year was 'Ben-Ami or not Ben-Ami'"), among others. He had much less success in

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...

's 1924 play ''Welded'', in which he starred. Among other problems, the style of play did not suit Ben-Ami, and he had a thick accent. ''Welded'' closed after three weeks and 24 performances. On March 9, 1943, he starred in a mass memorial service to the 2,000,000 Jews who had, up to that date, been murdered by the Nazis in Europe. The service, staged at Madison Square Garden in New York, was called '' We Will Never Die'' and during the two performances attracted 40,000 people. His last Broadway play was '' The Tenth Man'', written by

Paddy Chayefsky Sidney Aaron "Paddy" Chayefsky (; January 29, 1923 – August 1, 1981) was an American playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He is the only person to have won three solo Academy Awards for writing both adapted and original screenplays. He w ...

; it had one of the longer runs on Broadway at 623 performances from November 5, 1959, to May 13, 1961. As an established star, Ben-Ami helped the then-unknown

John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle; March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...

get accepted into the American Laboratory Theater. He also co-directed the 1937 film ''

Green Fields "Green Fields" is the third single by British alternative rock band the Good, the Bad & the Queen.Note that while frontman Damon Albarn has claimed that the band is officially unnamed, and that "The Good, The Bad & The Queen" was merely the nam ...

'' with Edgar G. Ulmer and appeared in the films ''

The Wandering Jew The Wandering Jew (occasionally referred to as the Eternal Jew, a calque from German ) is a mythical Immortality, immortal man whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. In the original legend, a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way ...

'' (1933) and ''Esperanza'' (1949), and on television. His niece is the actress and film director

Jennifer Warren Jennifer Warren (born August 12, 1941) is an American actress, producer and film director. Early life and education Warren's uncle was Yiddish theatre actor and director Jacob Ben-Ami. Career Warren made her Broadway debut in 1972 in '' 6 Rms ...

References

External links

January 1, 1922, photograph

Half-length portrait caricature
in the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Jacob Ben-Ami
portrait with

Doris Keane Doris Keane (December 12, 1881 – November 25, 1945) was an American actress, primarily in live theatre. Early life and family Keane was born in Michigan to Joseph Keane and Florence Winter. She was educated privately in Chicago, New York, Pa ...

, 1924 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ben-Ami, Jacob 1890 births 1977 deaths Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Jewish American male actors American theatre directors Yiddish theatre performers Male actors from Minsk People from Minsky Uyezd Jews from the Russian Empire 20th-century American Jews Jewish theatre directors

Biography

See also

References

External links