Leo Fuchs (May 15, 1911 – December 31, 1994) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

actor.Mendelovitch, Bernard (January 18, 1995).
Leo Fuchs
(obituary). ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. independent.co.uk. Retrieved November 10, 2018. According to YIVO, he was born Avrum Leib Fuchs in Warsaw;Leo Fuchs papers
''Guide to the YIVO Archives''.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

. yivoarchives.org. Retrieved October 31, 2018. according to Joel Schechter, he was born in

Lwów Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

, Galicia, then Poland, now called

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

, Ukraine. Schechter (2008), p. 180
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 A coupletist (kupletist) is a poet, singer, or actor who specializes in couplets – wittily ambiguous, political, or satirical songs, usually in cabaret settings, usually with refrains, generally used as a transition between two cabaret numbers. W ...

. 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),Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book five, 4053 was "a leading lady of the musical theatre who perished in the Holocaust of the 1940s," shot dead by Nazi Germans. 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.

Career

His American debut was at the Second Avenue Theater in the

Yiddish Theater District The Yiddish Theatre District, also called the Jewish Rialto and the Yiddish Realto, was the center of New York City's Yiddish theatre scene in the early 20th century. It was located primarily on Second Avenue, though it extended to Avenue B, b ...

in ''Lucky Boy'' with

Moishe Oysher Moishe Oysher () (March 8, 1906 – November 27, 1958) was an American cantor, recording artist, and film and Yiddish theatre actor.Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book 3, 2407. During the 1940s and 1950s he was one of the to ...

in 1929.Leo Fuchs: Born Laybl Springer in Lemberg
. Caraid O'Brien, 2nd Avenue site. Retrieved May 26, 2015. He moved to New York City in 1935. In his prime, he was known as "The

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

", 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 Yetta Zwerling Silverman (December 25, 1894 – January 17, 1982) was a Yiddish movie star during the 1930s and 1940s. Early life Yetta Zwerling was born in Kalievo, near Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Choliv, near Lviv, Ukra ...

. In 1940 he starred in ''Amerikaner Shadkhen'' ( American Matchmaker).Leo Fuchs bio at IMDb
Retrieved May 26, 2015. He divorced in 1941 and later married Rebecca Richman. Starting in the 1960s, Fuchs performed in English-language plays and television, as well as

Hollywood films The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...

, including ''

The Story of Ruth ''The Story of Ruth'' is a 1960 American historical romance film directed by Henry Koster, shot in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color, and released by 20th Century Fox. The screenplay, written by Norman Corwin, is an adaptation of the biblical Book o ...

'' (1960). Two of his best-known roles were in ''

The Frisco Kid ''The Frisco Kid'' is a 1979 American Western comedy film directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Gene Wilder as Avram Belinski, a Polish rabbi who is traveling to San Francisco, and Harrison Ford as a bank robber who befriends him. Plot Rabbi ...

'' (1979), in which he played with

Gene Wilder Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...

, and as Hymie Krichinsky in the film ''

Avalon Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...

'' (1990). He died in Los Angeles in 1994.

Filmography

Movies

Television

References

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.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Leo 1911 births 1994 deaths Jewish American male actors Jewish cabaret performers Actors from Lviv People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Austro-Hungarian Jews Yiddish theatre Polish cabaret performers Jewish Polish male actors Polish emigrants to the United States People from Greater Los Angeles Yiddish theatre performers Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery 20th-century American male actors Vaudeville performers 20th-century comedians 20th-century American Jews