Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff (August 2, 1919 – April 5, 2022) was an American actor and painter born in Jerusalem, Palestine, whose career in film, television, and theatre spanned more than five decades and encompassed over 200 productions. His father, Shmuel, a silversmith, jeweler, and art teacher originally from Chernihiv in the Russian Empire, immigrated to the United States in 1923 in search of better opportunities. By 1929, Shmuel had established financial stability in New York City and arranged for his wife Puah, three sons, and two daughters to join him. The family settled first in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before relocating to the Bronx, where Yiddish and Hebrew were spoken at home.

Persoff completed his studies at the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York City, earning certification as an electrician in 1937. Drafted into the United States Army in 1942, he served through the end of World War II, assigned to Special Services for entertainment purposes. Following his discharge, he worked as a subway signal maintenance electrician in New York City before committing fully to an acting career. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actors Studio as one of 26 members of a beginners' class led by Elia Kazan, alongside Martin Balsam, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Cloris Leachman, and James Whitmore.

His Broadway career ran from 1947 to 1959 and included productions such as Camino Real, Mademoiselle Colombe, Reclining Figure, Tiger at the Gates, and Only in America. His first screen appearance came as an uncredited extra in the film noir The Naked City in 1948. Among his early film roles was the taxi driver present during Marlon Brando's "I coulda been a contender" monologue in On the Waterfront (1954). He played Leo the accountant opposite Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger in The Harder They Fall (1956), and appeared again with Steiger in Al Capone (1959). That same year, he portrayed the gangster boss Little Bonaparte in Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, a role that brought him considerable recognition. He also appeared in supporting capacities in The Comancheros (1961) and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

Television provided Persoff with some of his most enduring work. He appeared in six episodes of The Untouchables, portraying Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik in three of them, a role widely regarded as his signature performance. His television credits also included episodes of The Twilight Zone, Gilligan's Island, Hawaii Five-O, Adam-12, Law and Order, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, the last of which made him the oldest living male actor to have appeared in a Star Trek production at the time of his death. In 1978, he appeared alongside Dean Stockwell and Andrew Bloch in the Greatest Heroes of the Bible episode Daniel in the Lions' Den, playing one of Darius the Great's Babylonian administrators.

In the 1983 film Yentl, Persoff portrayed the father of Barbra Streisand's character, identified in the film as Rebbe Mendel. He appeared in the comedy Twins in 1988 and provided the voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the animated feature An American Tail (1986) and its sequels, a role that introduced him to a new generation of audiences. His final film credit was 4 Faces (1999), directed by Ted Post.

In 1951, Persoff married Thia Persov, who had served as a nurse with the Palmach during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The couple had four children — Jeffrey, Dan, Perry, and Dahlia — and remained married until Thia's death from cancer in 2021. Persoff retired from acting in 2003 and devoted himself to painting, working primarily in watercolors. His memoir, The Many Faces of Nehemiah, was published by The Autumn Road Company in July 2021. He died of heart failure on April 5, 2022, at a rehabilitation facility in San Luis Obispo, California, at the age of 102.