Paul Muni

Paul Muni, born Frederich Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund on September 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now Lviv, Ukraine, was an American stage and film actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1926 to 1955. His parents, Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, were both actors, and Yiddish was his first language. In 1902, at the age of seven, he emigrated with his family to the United States, settling in Chicago. He died on August 25, 1967.

Muni began his performing life in the Yiddish theater in Chicago alongside his parents, and it was there that he developed an exceptional facility with makeup techniques, learning to transform his appearance so thoroughly that he could portray characters far older than himself. At twelve years old, he took on the stage role of an eighty-year-old man. Maurice Schwartz recognized his abilities and signed him to perform at the Yiddish Art Theater. A 1925 New York Times article cited his performances at the People's Theater as among the highlights of that year's Yiddish theater season, ranking him second only to Ludwig Satz. In 1921, he married Bella Finkel, an actress in the Yiddish theater and daughter of Moishe Finkel; they remained married until his death in 1967.

Muni made his Broadway debut in 1926, playing an elderly Jewish man in We Americans, written by Max Siegel and Milton Herbert Gropper. It was the first time he had performed in English. His stage name, Paul Muni, was an anglicized derivation of his childhood nickname "Moony," a simplification formalized when Fox signed him in 1929. His first film, The Valiant, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor despite poor box office performance, and his second film, Seven Faces, in which he played seven distinct characters, was similarly unsuccessful commercially. Dissatisfied with the roles available to him in Hollywood, he returned to Broadway, where he starred in the hit play Counsellor at Law.

He went back to Hollywood to appear in a series of pre-Code films, most notably Scarface and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, both released in 1932. The latter earned him another Academy Award nomination, and his performance persuaded Warner Bros. to sign him to a long-term contract. In 1935, he appeared in Black Fury, and at the 8th Academy Awards he placed second on the basis of write-in votes. The following year, he persuaded Warner Bros. to produce The Story of Louis Pasteur, a historical biography released in 1936, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor as well as the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. He went on to portray Émile Zola in The Life of Emile Zola in 1937, earning yet another Oscar nomination, and played the lead in Juarez in 1939. Also in 1937, he played a Chinese peasant in the film adaptation of Pearl Buck's novel The Good Earth. In A Song to Remember in 1945, he played the role of Frédéric Chopin's teacher, and in 1946 he took a rare comic part in Angel on My Shoulder. His final film role came in The Last Angry Man in 1959, playing an aging doctor, for which he received his fifth Academy Award nomination. In total, Muni appeared in twenty-two films.

Returning his focus to the stage, Muni appeared on Broadway in 1946 in A Flag Is Born, written by Ben Hecht to promote the creation of a Jewish state in Israel. The production was directed by Luther Adler and co-starred Marlon Brando. On July 28, 1949, at London's Phoenix Theatre, Muni began a run as Willy Loman in the first British production of Death of a Salesman, taking over the role from Lee J. Cobb; both productions were directed by Elia Kazan. In 1952, he traveled to Italy to star in Stranger on the Prowl, directed by Joseph Losey, partly as an act of solidarity with blacklisted friends living abroad.

Among his other Broadway credits were the play They Knew What They Wanted, Key Largo, and the comedy Magic. His most celebrated stage achievement came during the 1955 and 1956 run of Inherit the Wind, in which he played the crusading lawyer Henry Drummond, a character based on Clarence Darrow. In late August 1955, a serious eye ailment forced him to withdraw from the production; he was diagnosed in early September with a tumor of the left eye, which was surgically removed at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York. He returned to the role in early December 1955 and was later replaced by Melvyn Douglas. For his performance in Inherit the Wind, Muni received the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1956. His final screen appearance was a guest role on the television dramatic series Saints and Sinners in 1962, after which he largely retired from acting due to failing eyesight and other health problems.