Reuven Adiv (; 5 June 1930 – 23 December 2004) was a

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 ...

-born Israeli actor, director and drama teacher, most notable as the head of acting at the Drama Centre in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

from 1984 to 2004.

Early life

Reuven Adiv was born in

, British Mandate of Palestine (now

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

) on 5 June 1930, to a family of

Ashkenazi Jewish Ashkenazi Jews ( ; also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim) form a distinct subgroup of the Jewish diaspora, that Ethnogenesis, emerged in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium Common era, CE. They traditionally spe ...

background. He fought on the Jerusalem front against the British administration. His father was born in part of modern-day

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

(then part of the

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 ...

), and died in a

Nazi concentration camp From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately af ...

Career

His early acting experience came at the Ohel Theatre and the

Cameri Theater The Cameri Theatre (, ''HaTeatron HaKameri''), established in 1944 in Tel Aviv, is one of the leading theatres in Israel, and is housed at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center. History The Cameri Theatre was founded with the purpose of promoting ...

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 ...

. He studied under

Lee Strasberg Lee Strasberg (born Israel Strassberg; November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American acting coach and actor. He co-founded, with theatre directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed ...

at the

Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...

in New York, where he also took the director's course. He also studied at the film school of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

before returning to teach at the Lee Strasberg institute. He returned to Tel Aviv,

, in 1971 and alongside stage and screen acting he was invited to teach at the Beit Zvi school of performing arts in

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 ...

, Israel. In 1979 he was appointed principal of the theatre department of Seminar Ha Kibbutzim College. In 1984, he was invited to become head of the acting department at the Drama Centre, London as a successor to Doreen Cannon, who had become head of acting at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

(RADA).

"...the results emanate from within, owing nothing to make-up or setting..." – Reuven Adiv

From 1986 to 1996, he was a guest teacher at the Swedish State Theatre School, Gothenburg and from 2003 he taught at the Forum für Filmschauspiel in Berlin.

Notable students

Tom Hardy *

Morven Christie Morven Christie is a Scottish actress. She is best known for her roles as Alison Hughes in the BBC drama '' The A Word,'' Amanda Hopkins in the ITV drama ''Grantchester'', and Detective Sergeant Lisa Armstrong in ITV crime series '' The Bay.'' ...

* Benjamin Davies *

Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...

Tara Fitzgerald Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald (born 1967)is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage. She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia in ''Hamlet' ...

Ruta Gedmintas Ruta Gedmintas is a British actress known for her work on television. Her credits include ''The Innocence Project'' (2006–2007), ''The Tudors'' (2007), '' Spooks: Code 9'' (2008), '' The Borgias'' (2011), '' Lip Service'' (2010–2012), ''The ...

* Martin Goeres *

Helen McCrory Helen Elizabeth McCrory (17 August 1968 – 16 April 2021) was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her professional stage debut in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' in 1990. Other theatre roles include play ...

John Simm John Ronald Simm (born 10 July 1970) is an English actor, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Sam Tyler in ''Life on Mars'', the Master in ''Doctor Who,'' and DS Roy Grace in ''Grace.'' His other television credits include '' ...

Selected stage productions as director

* ''

The Crucible ''The Crucible'' is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay from 1692 to 1693. Miller wrote ...

'',

Drama Centre London Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) was a British drama school in Kings Cross, London, King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint ...

(2003) * ''

Marya The Marya are a tribe in western Eritrea. They are mostly shepherds and farmers they inhabit the middle valley of the Anseba River in the Keren District. There split into two clans: the Marya qeyih and the marya tselam. They are related to the Me ...

'', Drama Centre London (2003) * ''

Paradise Lost ''Paradise Lost'' is an Epic poetry, epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The poem concerns the Bible, biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their ex ...

'', Drama Centre London (2002) * ''

This Happy Breed ''This Happy Breed'' is a play by Noël Coward. It was written in 1939 but, because of the outbreak of World War II, it was not staged until 1942, when it was performed on alternating nights with another Coward play, '' Present Laughter''. The ...

'' by

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

, Drama Centre London (2002) * '' Napoli Millionaria'' by

Eduardo De Filippo Eduardo De Filippo OMRI (; 26 May 1900 – 31 October 1984), also known simply as ''Eduardo'', was an Italian actor, director, screenwriter, and playwright, best known for his Neapolitan language, Neapolitan works ''Filumena Marturano'' and ...

, Drama Centre London (2001) * ''

Tartuffe ''Tartuffe, or The Impostor, or The Hypocrite'' (; , ), first performed in 1664, is a theatrical comedy (or more specifically, a farce) by Molière. The characters of Tartuffe, Elmire, and Orgon are considered among the greatest classical theat ...

'', Drama Centre London (2000) * ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' () is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 in literature, 1895 and first produced in 1896 in literature#Drama, 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramati ...

'', Drama Centre London (1999) * ''

Six Characters in Search of an Author ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' ( ) is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist metatheatric play about the relationship among authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners, it p ...

'' by

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; ; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italians, Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ...

, Drama Centre London (n.d.) * Ibsen's ''

A Doll's House ''A Doll's House'' (Danish language, Danish and ; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act Play (theatre), play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 De ...

'', Drama Centre London (n.d.) * '' Spring Awakening'', Drama Centre London (n.d.) * ''Enemies'', Drama Centre London (n.d.) * '' Right You Are (If You Think You Are)'', Drama Centre London (n.d.)

Personal life

He married the Israeli actress and broadcaster Galia Nativ in 1980. They had two children, a daughter and a son, and lived in North London. He died of a heart attack in 2004, aged 74.

Filmography

* 1976 ''

Giv'at Halfon Eina Ona ''Giv'at Halfon Eina Ona'' (, lit: "Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer"), also titled ''Giv'at Halfon'', is a cult Israeli comedy film produced in 1976. It is a good-hearted satire of the Israel Defense Forces which tells the story of a reserves company, w ...

'' (English: '' Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer''), directed by

Assi Dayan Assaf "Assi" Dayan (; 23 November 1945 – 1 May 2014) was an Israeli film director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. Life Dayan was the youngest son of Israeli general and defense minister Moshe Dayan and peace activist Ruth Dayan (née Sch ...

, Israel – Cast member

References

External links

Obituary at The StageObituary at The Guardian
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adiv, Reuven 1930 births 2004 deaths Artists from Jerusalem Israeli Ashkenazi Jews Israeli people of Belarusian-Jewish descent Actors Studio alumni Israeli male stage actors Drama teachers Israeli male film actors Academics of the Drama Centre London Male actors from Jerusalem Tisch School of the Arts alumni Israeli expatriate male actors in the United States Israeli expatriates in the United Kingdom Academic staff of Kibbutzim College