Leo Fuchs

Leo Fuchs (May 15, 1911 – December 31, 1994) was a Polish-born American actor.[1] According to YIVO, he was born Avrum Leib Fuchs in Warsaw;[2] according to Joel Schechter, he was born in Lwów, Galicia, then Poland, now called Lviv, Ukraine.[3]

Leo Fuchs
Fuchs preparing for a role in 1949
Born(1911-05-15)May 15, 1911
DiedDecember 31, 1994(1994-12-31) (aged 83)
Occupationactor

Fuchs performed in many Yiddish and English plays and movies throughout the mid-twentieth century, and was famed as a comic, a dancer, and a coupletist. He wrote much of his own material and toured widely.

Early life

Fuchs was born into a Yiddish theatrical family: his father, Yakov Fuchs, was a character actor; his mother, Róża Fuchs (Ruzha Fuchs),[4] was "a leading lady of the musical theatre who perished in the Holocaust of the 1940s,"[5] shot dead by Nazi Germans.[6] He began acting (in Polish) when he was five years old, and was praised when he performed at the Warsaw cabaret Qui Pro Quo when he was 17.[3]

Career

His American debut was at the Second Avenue Theater in the Yiddish Theater District in Lucky Boy with Moishe Oysher in 1929.[7] He moved to New York City in 1935.[2] In his prime, he was known as "The Yiddish Fred Astaire",[8][9] appearing both on Broadway and in film. In 1936, he married fellow actor Mirele Gruber and toured with her through Poland for a year. In 1937 he made two movies, the short I Want to Be a Boarder (in which he sang his famous song Trouble) and I Want to Be a Mother with Yetta Zwerling. In 1940 he starred in Amerikaner Shadkhen (American Matchmaker).[10] He divorced in 1941[7] and later married Rebecca Richman.

Starting in the 1960s, Fuchs performed in English-language plays and television,[2] as well as Hollywood films, including The Story of Ruth (1960).[1] Two of his best-known roles were in The Frisco Kid (1979), in which he played with Gene Wilder, and as Hymie Krichinsky in the film Avalon (1990).[3][1] He died in Los Angeles in 1994.[2]

Filmography

Movies
Year Title Role Notes
1937I Want to Be a MotherKhaim Bok
1940Americaner ShadchenNat Silver / Uncle Shya
1941Mazel Tov Yidden
1950Monticello, Here We Come
1960The Story of RuthSochin
1972Awake and SingJacobPBS - TV
1979The Frisco KidChief Rabbi
1990AvalonHymie Krichinsky(final film role)

Television
Year Title Role Notes
1961The Tab Hunter ShowPandro TremaineEpisode "The Movie Set" (alternate title "A Star Is Born")
1962Wagon Train - The Levy McGowan StoryMr. Levy
1963Mister EdMr. RasmussenEpisode "Patter of Little Hooves"
1970Green AcresUncle FedorEpisode "Uncle Fedor"
1972 Sanford and Son Herman Goldstein Episode “The Shootout”

References
  1. Mendelovitch, Bernard (January 18, 1995). "Leo Fuchs" (obituary). The Independent. independent.co.uk. Retrieved November 10, 2018.
  2. Leo Fuchs papers, Guide to the YIVO Archives. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. yivoarchives.org. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  3. Schechter (2008), p. 180.
  4. Zalmen Zylbercweig, Leksikon fun Yidishn teater, Book five, 4053
  5. "Save the Music bio: Leo Fuchs". Archived from the original on December 8, 2013. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  6. Yonas Turkow, Farloshene shtern, book 2, p 83–87
  7. Leo Fuchs: Born Laybl Springer in Lemberg Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine. Caraid O'Brien, 2nd Avenue site. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  8. Lugowski, p. 63.
  9. Friedman, p. 36.
  10. Leo Fuchs bio at IMDb. Retrieved May 26, 2015.

Bibliography
  • Friedman, Jonathan C. Rainbow Jews: Jewish and Gay Identity in the Performing Arts. Plymouth, UK: Lexington, 2007.
  • Lugowski, David. "'Pintele' Queer: The Performance of Jewish Male Heterosexuality in Yiddish American Cinema of the Great Depression." In Griffin, Sean. Hetero: Queering Representations of Straightness. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009. 53–70.
  • Schechter, Joel. Messiahs of 1933: How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity through Satire. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2008.
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