Leo Fuchs (May 15, 1911 – December 31, 1994) was a
Polish-born
American actor.
[Mendelovitch, Bernard (January 18, 1995).]
Leo Fuchs
(obituary). ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
''. independent.co.uk. Retrieved November 10, 2018. According to YIVO, he was born Avrum Leib Fuchs in Warsaw;
[Leo Fuchs papers]
''Guide to the YIVO Archives''. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. yivoarchives.org. Retrieved October 31, 2018. according to Joel Schechter, he was born in
Lwów
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukrain ...
, Galicia, then Poland, now called
Lviv
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukra ...
, Ukraine.
[ Schechter (2008), p. 180](_blank)
Fuchs performed in many Yiddish and English plays and movies throughout the mid-twentieth century, and was famed as a comic, a dancer, and a
coupletist. He wrote much of his own material and toured widely.
Early life
Fuchs was born into a Yiddish theatrical family: his father,
Yakov Fuchs Yakov Fuchs (1880–1921) was a Yiddish theater actor. Born in Lemburg ( Lviv), Galitsia, he joined a Yiddish theater chorus at the age of 17 and after singing in Lemburg and Rumania for a short time, he became a soloist and then starred in Profess ...
, was a character actor; his mother, Róża Fuchs (
Ruzha Fuchs Ruzha Fuchs (Róża Fuchs) (1890–1942), was a Yiddish theater actress. Born in Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine). She entered the chorus of a Polish-language theater as she didn't know much Yiddish, but through connections was taken into the Yidd ...
),
[Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book five, 4053] was "a leading lady of the musical theatre who perished in the Holocaust of the 1940s," shot dead by Nazi Germans. He began acting (in Polish) when he was five years old, and was praised when he performed at the Warsaw cabaret ''Qui Pro Quo'' when he was 17.
Career
His American debut was at the Second Avenue Theater in the
Yiddish Theater District in ''Lucky Boy'' with
Moishe Oysher
Moishe Oysher () (March 8, 1906 – November 27, 1958) was an American cantor, recording artist, and film and Yiddish theatre actor.Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book 3, 2407. During the 1940s and 1950s he was one of the ...
in 1929.
[Leo Fuchs: Born Laybl Springer in Lemberg]
. Caraid O'Brien, 2nd Avenue site. Retrieved May 26, 2015. He moved to New York City in 1935.
[ In his prime, he was known as "The Yiddish ]Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
", appearing both on Broadway and in film. In 1936, he married fellow actor Mirele Gruber and toured with her through Poland for a year. In 1937 he made two movies, the short '' I Want to Be a Boarder'' (in which he sang his famous song ''Trouble'') and ''I Want to Be a Mother'' with Yetta Zwerling
Yetta Zwerling Silverman (December 25, 1894 – January 17, 1982) was a Yiddish movie star during the 1930s and 1940s.
Early life
Yetta Zwerling was born in Kalievo, near Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Choliv, near Lviv, Ukra ...
. In 1940 he starred in ''Amerikaner Shadkhen'' (American Matchmaker
''American Matchmaker'', or ''אמעריקאנער שדכן (Americaner Shadchen)'' is a 1940 Yiddish-language American comedy film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Leo Fuchs (known as "the Yiddish Fred Astaire"), Judith Abarbanel, Judel D ...
).Leo Fuchs bio at IMDb
Retrieved May 26, 2015. He divorced in 1941
[ and later married Rebecca Richman.
Starting in the 1960s, Fuchs performed in English-language plays and television,][ as well as ]Hollywood films
The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Amer ...
, including '' The Story of Ruth'' (1960).Gene Wilder
Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in '' Willy W ...
, and as Hymie Krichinsky in the film '' Avalon'' (1990).[
]
Filmography
Movies
Television
References
Bibliography
* Friedman, Jonathan C. ''Rainbow Jews: Jewish and Gay Identity in the Performing Arts.'' Plymouth, UK: Lexington, 2007.
* Lugowski, David. "'Pintele' Queer: The Performance of Jewish Male Heterosexuality in Yiddish American Cinema of the Great Depression." In Griffin, Sean. ''Hetero: Queering Representations of Straightness.'' Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009. 53–70.
* Schechter, Joel. ''Messiahs of 1933: How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity through Satire.'' Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2008.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Leo
1911 births
1994 deaths
Jewish American male actors
Jewish cabaret performers
Actors from Lviv
People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Yiddish theatre
Polish cabaret performers
Jewish Polish male actors
Polish emigrants to the United States
People from Greater Los Angeles
Yiddish theatre performers
Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
20th-century American male actors
Vaudeville performers
20th-century comedians
20th-century American Jews