Great Jews

10 Great Male Jewish Movie Stars

"I have not collected art. Art collected me. I never found paintings. They found me. I have never even owned a work of art. They owned me."

- Edward G. Robinson

"Success didn't change me. I was already distorted before I became a star."

- Elliot Gould

Kirk Douglas (Issur Danielovitch Demsky)

(b. 1916, Amsterdam, New York, USA)

Popular American film actor known for his powerful roles in movies such as Lust for Life (1956) and Spartacus (1960). He received three Academy Award nominations in a career spanning seven decades and 90 films. Off screen, he has been involved in humanitarian causes and has served as Goodwill Ambassador for the US State Department since 1963.

An Interview with Kirk Douglas

Books:

Tony Thomas, The Films of Kirk Douglas (Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1972).

Michael Munn, Kirk Douglas: The Man - The Actor (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985)

Kirk Douglas, The Ragman's Son (New York: Pocket Books, 1988)

Kirk Douglas, My Stroke of Luck (New York: Morrow, 2002)

Kirk Douglas, Let's Face It: 90 Years of Living, Loving, and Learning (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007)

Laurence Harvey (Zvi Mosheh (Hirsh) Skikne or Laruschka Mischa Skikne)

(b. 1927, Joniškis, Lithuania; d. 1973, London, England, UK)

Lithuanian-born British actor who grew up in South Africa and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He worked on stage and in minor film roles before making his name in 1958 playing working-class social climber Joe Lampton in Room at the Top. On the strength of this Oscar nominated performance, he established himself as an international star with roles in The Alamo (1960), Butterfield 8 (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Darling (1965).

Laurence Harvey Filmography

Books:

Anne Sinai, Reach for the Top: The Turbulent Life of Laurence Harvey (Filmmakers Series) (The Scarecrow Press, Inc. (April 28, 2007)

Pauline Stone, with Peter Evans, One Tear is Enough: My Life with Laurence Harvey (Michael Joseph, 1975)

Des Hickey and Gus Smith, The Prince: Being the Public and Private Life of Larushka Mischa Skikne, a Jewish Lithuanian Vagabond Player, Otherwise Known As Laurence Harvey (1976, W. H. Allen)

Edward G. Robinson (Emanuel Goldenberg)

(b. 1893, Bucharest, Romania; d. 1973, Hollywood, California, USA)

Stage and screen actor who made more than 90 films. Best known for his portrayal of gangsters and shady characters, he was in real life a cultured man with a love of fine art. Never nominated for an Acadamy Award, he was posthumously awarded a "Lifetime Achievement" Oscar.

A Tribute to Edward G. Robinson

Books:

Edward G. Robinson, All My Yesterdays (Signet, 1975)

Alan L. Gansberg, Little Caesar: A Biography of Edward G. Robinson (The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004)

Robert Beck, The Edward G. Robinson Encyclopedia (McFarland & Company, 2002)

Jane Robinson, Edward G. Robinson's World of Art (Harper & Row, 1975)

John Garfield (Jacob Julius Garfinkle)

(b. 1913, New York, NY, USA; d. 1952, New York, NY,USA)

American actor twice nominated for an Academy Award. He excelled in rebellous and tough guy character roles and was the screen's first rebel hero and predecessor of Method-style film actors such as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.

A Tribute to John Garfield

Books:

Robert Nott, He Ran All the Way: The Life of John Garfield (Limelight Editions, 2004)

Patrick J. McGrath, John Garfield: The Illustrated Career in Films And on Stage (McFarland & Company, 2006)

James N Beaver, Jr, John Garfield, His Life and Films: Pictorial review of each of his 35 films, (A.S.Barnes, 1978)

Tony Curtis (Bernard Schwartz)

(b . 1925, New York, NY, USA)

Handsome Holywood actor popular in the 1950s as a screen hunk who also showed he had acting talent in films such as Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and The Defiant Ones (1958). He has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning five decades. In retirement he has developed his interest in painting and has had a number of exhibitions of his work.

Tony Curtis Filmography

Books:

Tony Curtis and Barry Paris, Tony Curtis: The Autobiography (William Morrow & Co., 1993)

Allan Hunter, Tony Curtis: The Man and His Movies (St Martins Pr, 1985)

Michael Munn, Kid from the Bronx; a biography of Tony Curtis (W. H. Allen, 1984)

Elliot Gould (Elliott Goldstein)

(b. 1938, New York, NY, USA)

Stage and screen actor who came to movie prominence in the 1970s with films such as MASH (1970), The Long Goodbye (1973) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). In a forty year career he has appeared in more than 80 films, winning an Academy Award nomination for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). He married Barbra Sreisand, his first wife, in 1963.

Elliot Gould: An Actor's Life

Books:

Robert B Parker and Elliot Gould (Performer), Perchance to Dream (Phoenix Books, 2007)

Philip Roth, Elliot Gould (Performer), Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories (Phoenix Audio, 2001)

Walter Matthau (Walter John Matthow)

(b. 1920, New York, NY, USA; d. 2000, Santa Monica, California, USA)

Broadway and Hollywood actor. Tall and gangling with lugubrious features, he made his mark in comedy drama and received numerous awards for his stage and film work. He was still working in film and television at the age of eighty.

Walter Matthau: the Official Site

Books:

Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg, Matthau: A Life (Taylor Trade Publishing, 2002)

Allan Hunter, Walter Matthau (St Martins Pr, 1985)

Carol Matthau, Among the Porcupines a Memoir (Turtle Bay Bks, Random House, 1992)

Jeff Chandler (Ira Grossel)

(b. 1918, New York, NY, USA; d. 1961, Los Angeles, California, USA)

Started his acting career on radio after serving as an army officer in World War Two. Tall and muscular with rugged good looks, he became a star making Westerns and action movies in the 1950s. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950). Apart from making movies, he also had success as a singer and songwriter, releasing several albums and playing nightclubs. 

More on Jeff Chandler

Books:

Marilyn Kirk, Jeff Chandler (1st Books Library, 2003)

Jeff Wells, Jeff Chandler: Film, Record, Radio, and Television Performances (McFarland & Company, 2005)

Peter Lorre (Ladislav (László) Löwenstein)

(b. 1904, Rózsahegy, Austria-Hungary; d. 1964, Los Angeles, California, USA)

He began acting on stage as a young man in Vienna and gained international fame as the psychotic child killer in Fritz Lang's silent film M (1931). Leaving Germany in 1933 to escape the Nazi regime he moved to Paris and then London, landing the part of a villain in Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). He later went to Hollywood where his accent and appearance led him to be cast as the sinister foreigner in films such as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942) and Background to Danger (1943).

Peter Lorre - Hollywood's Sinister Star

Books:

Stephen D. Youngkin, The Lost One: A Life of Peter Lorre (University Press of Kentucky, 2005)

Gary J. Suehla and Susan Suehla, Peter Lorre (Midnight Marquee Actors Series) (Marquee Press, 1999)

Stephen Youngkin, The Films of Peter Lorre (Citadel Press, 1984)