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List Of Jewish American Show Business Figures
American-Jewish comedy is, in part, a continuation of the traditional role of humor in Jewish culture among historical and contemporary American performers. It has appealed to both Jewish and wider mainstream audiences. At various times in American history, the field of comedy has been dominated by Jewish comedians. History The Borscht Belt arose in the early 20th century out of the tradition of Yiddish theater, in Jewish resort areas in the Catskill Mountains in New York. Many of the most famous Jewish comedians of the twentieth century launched their careers there. Many of the comedians gained a wider mainstream audience with the rise of Vaudeville. Until recent years, most Jewish comedians adopted stage names that did not sound ethnic, as a way of gaining wider acceptance. Even among those who did not want to be considered Jewish comedians, their experiences as Jews were often included in their humor, including their moral sensibility. Themes and styles Some common themes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jewish Culture
Jewish culture is the culture of the Jewish people, from its formation in ancient times until the current age. Judaism itself is not a faith-based religion, but an orthoprax and ethnoreligion, pertaining to deed, practice, and identity. Jewish culture covers many aspects, including religion and worldviews, literature, media, and cinema, art and architecture, cuisine and traditional dress, attitudes to gender, marriage, and family, social customs and lifestyles, music and dance. Some elements of Jewish culture come from within Judaism, others from the interaction of Jews with host populations, and others still from the inner social and cultural dynamics of the community. Before the 18th century, religion dominated virtually all aspects of Jewish life, and infused culture. Since the advent of secularization, wholly secular Jewish culture emerged likewise. History There has not been a political unity of Jewish society since the united monarchy. Since then Israelite populations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with a highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film. He was known for his comic timing and the ability to cause laughter with a long pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated summation "''Well!''" His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny portrayed himself as a miser who obliviously played his violin badly and claimed perpetually to be 39 years of age. Early life Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Chicago, Illinois, on February 14, 1894, and grew up in nearby Waukegan. He was the son of Jewish immigrants Meyer Kubelsky (1864–1946) and Emma Sachs Kubelsky (1869–1917), sometimes called "Naomi". Meyer was a saloon ow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney Caesar (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2014) was an American comic actor, comedian and writer. With a career spanning 60 years, he was best known for two pioneering 1950s live television series: ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954), which was a 90-minute weekly show watched by 60 million people and its successor, ''Caesar's Hour'' (1954–1957), both of which influenced later generations of comedians. ''Your Show of Shows'' and its cast received seven Emmy nominations between the years 1953 and 1954 and tallied two wins. He also acted in films; he played Coach Calhoun in ''Grease (film), Grease'' (1978) and its sequel ''Grease 2'' (1982) and appeared in the films ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' (1963), ''Silent Movie'' (1976), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), ''Cannonball Run II'' (1984), and ''Vegas Vacation'' (1997). Caesar was considered a "sketch comic" and actor, as opposed to a stand-up comedian. He also relied more on body language, accents, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Burns
George Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum; January 20, 1896March 9, 1996) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He and his wife Gracie Allen appeared on radio, television and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen. At the age of 79, Burns experienced a sudden career revival as an amiable, beloved and unusually active comedy elder statesman in the 1975 film ''The Sunshine Boys'', for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Burns was only a Tony Award shy of being one of the few EGOT award recipients in the American entertainment industry, winning an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Oscar. Burns became a centenarian in 1996, continuing to work until just weeks before his death of cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills, shortly after his hundr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a Posthumous recognition, posthumous pardon in 2003. Bruce paved the way for counterculture-era comedians. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine ranked him third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time. Early life Bruce was Jewish, born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, New York, Mineola, New York (state), New York. He grew up in nearby Bellmore, New York, Bellmore, and attended Wellington C. Mepham High School. According to his biography, during part of his high school years, he lived at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show ''Your Show of Shows'' (1950–1954) alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. With Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series ''Get Smart'' (1965–1970). In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of their respective years of release. His best-known films include '' The Producers'' (1967), ''The Twelve Chairs'' (1970), '' Blazing Saddles'' (1974), ''Young Frankenstein'' (1974), '' Silent Movie'' (1976), ''High Anxiety'' (1977), ''History of the World, Part I'' (1981), '' Spaceballs'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Brooks
Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein ; July 22, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's '' Broadcast News'' and was widely praised for his performance as a ruthless Jewish mobster in the 2011 action drama film ''Drive''. Brooks has also played in ''Taxi Driver'' (1976), '' Private Benjamin'' (1980), '' Unfaithfully Yours'' (1984), and '' My First Mister'' (2001). He has written, directed, and starred in several comedy films, such as '' Modern Romance'' (1981), ''Lost in America'' (1985), and ''Defending Your Life'' (1991). He is also the author of '' 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America'' (2011). His voice acting credits include Marlin in '' Finding Nemo'' (2003) and ''Finding Dory'' (2016), Tiberius in ''The Secret Life of Pets'' (2016), and several one-time characters in ''The Simpsons'', including Hank Scorpio in "You Only Move Twice" (1996) and Russ Cargill in ''The Simpsons M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fanny Brice
Fania Borach (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951), known professionally as Fanny Brice or Fannie Brice, was an American comedienne, illustrated song model, singer, and theater and film actress who made many stage, radio, and film appearances. She is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series ''The Baby Snooks Show''. She was famously portrayed by Barbra Streisand in the stage musical '' Funny Girl''. Early life Fania Borach was born in Manhattan, New York City, United States, the third child of Rose (née Stern 1867–1941), a Jewish Hungarian woman who immigrated to the US at age 10, and Alsatian immigrant Charles Borach. The Borachs were saloon owners and had four children: Phillip, born in 1887; Carrie, born in 1889; Fania, born in 1891; and Louis, born in 1893. Under the name Lew Brice, her younger brother also became an entertainer and was the first husband of actress Mae Clarke. In 1908, Brice dropped out of school to work in a burlesque revu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Brenner
David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author. The most frequent guest on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in the 1970s and 1980s, Brenner "was a pioneer of observational comedy." His friend, comedian Richard Lewis (comedian), Richard Lewis, described Brenner as "the king of hip, observational comedy." Early life Brenner was born to Jewish parents in 1936 and raised in South Philadelphia, South and West Philadelphia. His father, Louis, was a vaudeville comedian, singer and dancer, performing under the stage name of Lou Murphy, who gave up his career and a film contract to please Brenner's grandfather, a rabbi, who objected to his working on the Sabbath. Once David became successful, he regularly sent his parents on cruises, and both of Brenner's parents would eventually die at advanced ages while on cruises aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, approximately two years apart. After high school, Brenner spen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alex Borstein
Alexandrea Borstein (born February 15, 1971) is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer. Borstein voices Lois Griffin on the animated comedy television series '' Family Guy'' (1999–present), and won a Primetime Emmy Award for the role. She gained acclaim for starring as Susie Myerson in the comedy-drama series ''The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel'' (2017–present), which has earned her two Primetime Emmy Awards. Borstein also had lead roles as various characters on the sketch comedy series ''MADtv'' (1997–2009), as well as Dawn Forchette in the medical comedy series '' Getting On'' (2013–2015). She had supporting roles in numerous films, including ''The Lizzie McGuire Movie'', ''Catwoman'' (2004), ''Good Night, and Good Luck'' (2005), ''Dinner for Schmucks'' (2010), ''Ted'' (2012), ''ParaNorman'' (2012), and '' A Million Ways to Die in the West'' (2014). Borstein spent her childhood in Deerfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, before moving with her family to Northridge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lewis Black
Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion, or any other cultural trends. He hosted the Comedy Central series ''Lewis Black's Root of All Evil'' and makes regular appearances on ''The Daily Show'' delivering his "The Daily Show recurring elements#Back in Black with Lewis Black, Back in Black" commentary segment, which he has been doing since ''The Daily Show'' was hosted by Craig Kilborn. He was voted 51st of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central in 2004; and was voted 5th in Comedy Central's Stand Up Showdown in 2008 and 11th in 2010. In 2015, he appeared as the voice of Anger in the Pixar film Inside Out (2015 film), ''Inside Out''. Lewis Black is also a spokesman for the Aruba Tourism Authority, appearing in television ads that first aired in late 2009 and 2010. He has served as an "ambassador for voting rights" for the Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sandra Bernhard
Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, singer, comedian and author. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. She is perhaps best known for portraying Nancy Bartlett Thomas on the ABC sitcom '' Roseanne'' from the fourth season (1991) to the end of the show in 1997. She played Nurse Judy Kubrak in the FX drama series ''Pose''. She is number 96 on Comedy Central's list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time. Early life Bernhard was born June 6, 1955, in Flint, Michigan, the daughter of Jeanette (née LaZebnik) and proctologist Jerome Bernhard. Her parents raised her as a Conservative Jew. She has three older brothers: Dan, David and Mark. Her family moved to Arizona when she was 10. She attended Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, graduating in 1973. Career Bernhard became a staple at The Comedy Store. As her popularity as a comedian grew, she was cast as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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