Peter Frye

Peter Frye, born Peter Friedman on March 1, 1914, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, was a Jewish Canadian actor, screenwriter, and film director whose career spanned stage and screen across multiple countries. Fluent in English, French, German, Hebrew, and Spanish, he brought an unusually broad range of experience to his work in the performing arts.

Before establishing himself in film and academia, Frye appeared on Broadway in 1940 in Medicine Show. Earlier in the decade, from 1937 to 1938, he had served as a member of the XV International Brigade during the Spanish Civil War, during which he was wounded in action.

In the 1950s, Frye emigrated to Israel, where he took on a professorship in drama at the University of Tel Aviv while also pursuing work as a stage director, actor, screenwriter, and film director. He co-wrote the screenplay for Hill 24 Doesn't Answer, a 1954 Israeli war film that holds the distinction of being the first feature film produced in Israel. He subsequently directed and co-wrote the 1961 Israeli drama I Like Mike, which was selected for entry into the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. His directorial work in Israel also included the 1960 drama Surprise Part, the 1963 documentary The Hero's Wife, which depicted kibbutz life and which he co-directed, the 1966 documentary Israel – The Holy Land, and the 1969 film My Margo.

Frye relocated to the United Kingdom in the 1970s, where he continued acting in film and television. His screen roles during this period included Kasyan in the 1976 film The Sell Out, Pontius Pilate in the 1979 film Jesus, and a role in the 1972 Jack Gold film The Gangster Show: The Irresistible Rise of Arturo Uri. He appeared as Rutherford in the 1984 film Nineteen Eighty Four and as Professor Maddox in the 1988 British television film Mr Know-all.

Frye was married twice. His first marriage was to Romanian actress Batya Lancet, with whom he had a daughter. His second wife, whom he married in 1970, was English actress Thelma Ruby, and the marriage lasted until his death. Beginning in 1980, the two collaborated on a stage production called Momma Golda, a play about the life of Golda Meir, Israel's first and only woman Prime Minister, which they both adapted and performed together. Frye and Ruby later co-authored a joint autobiography, Double or Nothing: Two Lives in the Theatre, published posthumously in 1997 by Janus Publishing Company. Frye died on June 2, 1991, in Sutton, London, England.