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Nehemiah Persoff

Nehemiah Persoff

Birthday: 1919-08-02 | Place of Birth: Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nehemiah Persoff (born August 2, 1919) was a former American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate. Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929. He began to take an interest in acting in the 1940s, and after serving in the Army during World War II, he began to pursue his acting career in the New York Theater. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actor's Studio and eventually began appearing in films. His film credits include: On the Waterfront, Some Like It Hot, Al Capone, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Voyage of the Damned, The Comancheros, Yentl (portraying Barbra Streisand's character's father), Twins and the American Tail (animated-film series) (voiced, "Papa Mousekewitz"). Persoff appeared in such television series as, Five Fingers ("The Moment of Truth"), The Big Valley ("Legend of a General", Parts I & II, episode), The Twilight Zone ("Judgment Night" episode), Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Heart of Gold" episode), The Untouchables, Naked City, The Legend of Jesse James, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, Ellery Queen ("The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse" episode), Mission: Impossible (3 episodes), Adam-12 ("Vendetta" episode), Charlie's Angels, Hunter, Columbo, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Magnum, P.I., Law & Order and Chicago Hope. In the mid-1980s, Persoff began to pursue painting, specializing in watercolour. This was at a time when health problems forced him to decrease his acting workload. Description above from the Wikipedia article Nehemiah Persoff, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2000
An American Tail: The Treasure of Manhattan Island

as    Papa Mousekewitz (voice)

1999
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster

as    Papa Mousekewitz (voice)

1991
An American Tail: Fievel Goes West

as    Papa Mousekewitz (voice)

1986
An American Tail

as    Papa Mousekewitz (voice)

1982
St. Helens

as    Mr. Ellison

1977
Deadly Harvest

as    Mort Logan

1976
Voyage of the Damned

as    Herr Hauser

1975
Psychic Killer

as    Doctor Gubner

1974
The Stranger Within

as    Dr. Edward Klein

1971
Red Sky at Morning

as    Amadeo Montoya

1968
Panic in the City

as    August Best

1968
The Money Jungle

as    Lt. Dow Reeves

1964
Fate Is the Hunter

as    Ben Sawyer

1963
The Hook

as    Capt. Van Ryn

1961
The Comancheros

as    Graile

1959
Day of the Outlaw

as    Dan, Starret's Foreman

1959
Green Mansions

as    Don Panta

1959
Al Capone

as    Johnny Torrio

1959
Some Like It Hot

as    Little Bonaparte

1958
The Badlanders

as    Vincente (The Powder Monkey)

1957
Men in War

as    Sfc. Lewis

1956
The Wild Party

as    Kicks Johnson

1956
The Harder They Fall

as    Leo