Zvee Scooler (December 1, 1899 – March 25, 1985) was a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n-born American actor and radio commentator. He was born in

Kamenets-Podolsky Kamianets-Podilskyi ( uk, Ка́м'яне́ць-Поді́льський, russian: Каменец-Подольский, Kamenets-Podolskiy, pl, Kamieniec Podolski, ro, Camenița, yi, קאַמענעץ־פּאָדאָלסק / קאַמעניץ, ...

(now

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

). He performed in both

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 ve ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, on the stage, television, and film. He is probably best known for his roles in '' Fiddler on the Roof'', playing Mordcha, the innkeeper in the Broadway play and the rabbi in the

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

. He appeared as Duddy's grandfather in the 1974 film "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz." Another of his more notable roles was that of Boris' father in

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

's ''

Love and Death ''Love and Death'' is a 1975 American comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It is a satire on Russian literature starring Allen and Diane Keaton as Boris and Sonja, Russians living during the Napoleonic Era who engage in mock-serious ...

''. He was known as the Grammeister on

WEVD WEVD was an American brokered programming radio station with some news-talk launched in August 1927 by the Socialist Party of America. Making use of the initials of recently deceased party leader Eugene Victor Debs in its call sign, the statio ...

, a Yiddish radio station in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Every Sunday, Scooler presented a ten-minute segment on the radio show, ''Forward Hour'', which was news and commentary in rhyme.Yiddish Radio Project "Vacation in the Mountains"
/ref> He died in New York City on March 25, 1985, at age 85.

Filmography

References

External links

* American male film actors American people of Russian-Jewish descent American male stage actors Jewish American male actors Yiddish theatre performers Radio personalities from New York City Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Jews from the Russian Empire 1899 births 1985 deaths 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American Jews {{US-radio-bio-stub