Molly Picon

Molly Picon (born Malka Opiekun, February 28, 1898; died April 5, 1992) was a New York-born actress, composer, and lyricist whose career spanned stage, screen, radio, and television across more than five decades. Her parents, Louis Picon and Clara Ostrovsky Picon, were Jewish emigrants — her father from Warsaw and her mother from near Kyiv. The family relocated to Philadelphia when Picon was three years old. She married actor and playwright Yankel (Jacob) Kalich in 1919; the couple had a stillborn daughter on August 13, 1920, and remained married until Kalich's death from cancer in 1975.

Picon built her earliest reputation in the Yiddish Theatre District, where she performed for seven years and became a prominent star. Her popularity in the 1920s was such that many productions incorporated her adopted first name, Molly, directly into their titles. In 1931 she opened a venue bearing her name, and in 1943 the New Century Theatre at 932 Seventh Avenue in Midtown Manhattan was briefly renamed the Molly Picon Theatre. Her film work began with silent pictures, and among her earliest surviving screen appearances is the 1923 Yiddish-language film East and West, produced in Vienna, in which she plays a daughter who accompanies her father to Galicia in East Central Europe. The film was an adaptation of the 1921 play Mezrach und Maarev and explores the tension between New and Old World Jewish cultures.

Radio work occupied Picon throughout the 1930s. In 1934 she hosted The Molly Picon Program, a musical comedy broadcast on WMCA in New York City. She followed that in 1938 with I Give You My Life, also on WMCA, a program that combined music with dramatic episodes drawn from her own life story. Two years after that, she hosted Molly Picon's Parade, a variety program on the same station.

Picon made her English-language stage debut in 1940, the year her Broadway career began. On Broadway she appeared in productions including the musical Oy Is Dus a Leben!, Something Old Something New, How to Be a Jewish Mother, and Paris Is Out!, among others. Her most celebrated Broadway credit was starring in the Jerry Herman musical Milk and Honey in 1961, a role that earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical in 1962. In 1966 she was cast in Chu Chem but departed the production during its Philadelphia previews; the show closed before reaching Broadway. Her Broadway career extended through 1977.

In film, Picon had a small part in the 1948 crime drama The Naked City, appearing as a woman operating a newsstand and soda fountain. Her first substantial English-language film role came in the 1963 comedy Come Blow Your Horn alongside Frank Sinatra. She is perhaps most widely recognized for portraying Yente the Matchmaker in the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. In the 1974 comedy For Pete's Sake she appeared as Mrs. Cherry, an elderly madam who arranges an ill-fated job for Barbra Streisand's character. Her final film appearances were as Roger Moore's mother in Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984).

Television credits included a recurring role as Mrs. Bronson in the NBC police comedy Car 54, Where Are You?, a guest appearance as Molly Gordon in an episode of CBS's Gomer Pyle, USMC, the role of Mother Mishkin in the third episode of Vega$, a part on the soap opera Somerset, and recurring appearances as Natalie's grandmother on The Facts of Life.

Picon also wrote two books: So Laugh a Little, a biography about her family published in 1962, and her autobiography Molly!, published in 1980. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Costumes from her theatrical career are held at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, and memorabilia associated with her career is displayed at the Second Avenue Deli, now located at 162 East 33rd Street in New York City. In 2007 she was featured in Making Trouble, a film tribute to female Jewish comedians produced by the Jewish Women's Archive.