Shlomo Bar-Shavit

Shlomo Bar-Shavit (Hebrew: שלמה בר-שביט; 7 December 1928 – 8 September 2019) was an Israeli actor, voice actor, and theatre director who also appeared on Broadway. Born in Jerusalem, his father worked in construction and his mother, a nurse at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was a granddaughter of Shlomo Elyashiv. His parents separated when he was four years old, and Bar-Shavit spent much of his childhood across 13 foster institutions and kibbutzim, among them Mishmar HaEmek and Givat Brenner. At nine years old, after watching a play organized by one of those foster homes, he resolved to pursue acting. He performed in his first play at a kibbutz at the age of 16, and in 1946 relocated to Tel Aviv to enroll in the acting school of the Habima Theatre, where he would go on to build the foundation of his stage career.

In 1948, Bar-Shavit enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and joined the Chizbatron entertainment troupe, performing for soldiers during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Beginning in 1949, he took on numerous roles in Habima productions, including Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Peer Gynt, Kazablan, Irma La Douce, and Richard III. His portrayal of Josef Mengele in a Holocaust-themed production drew strong reactions from audience members, including Holocaust survivors, and his home required a police guard out of concern for his safety. For a period, Bar-Shavit served on the Habima's management team as an artistic director, and in 1999 he directed a stage adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Eternal Husband.

Bar-Shavit brought his stage work to the United States in 1964, appearing on Broadway in Each Had Six Wings. That same year marked his debut in cinema with the Israeli film Bring the Girls to Eilat. He later starred in the 1970 film Lupo!, directed by Menahem Golan. On Israeli television, he held a recurring role as the father of the central protagonist in the series Polishuk, which ran from 2009 to 2011, and appeared in the season nine premiere episode of Life is Not Everything.

As a voice actor working in Hebrew dubbing, Bar-Shavit provided the voice of Rafiki in The Lion King films, Jasper in One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Fagin in Oliver & Company. He also served as the Hebrew voice of Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films before being replaced by Albert Cohen. In 2001, Bar-Shavit published an autobiography, and three years later a documentary chronicling his life was released.

Bar-Shavit was married and had one son and two daughters, and the family lived in Tel Aviv. In his final years he used a wheelchair and contended with Parkinson's disease and other health complications. He died on 8 September 2019 at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center from complications of pneumonia at the age of 90.