Nehemiah Persoff Dies: Prolific Actor Of ‘Yentl’, ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘Gunsmoke’ & Many More Was 102
deadline.comNehemiah Persoff, an actor who went from the uncredited role of a cab driver in On The Waterfront‘s iconic “coulda been a contender” scene to become one of the busiest character actors in television and film for five decades, died Tuesday at a rehabilitation facility in San Luis Obispo, California.
He was 102.Persoff had retired from acting in recent decades after suffering a stroke and other health issues. His death was reported to Deadline by a family friend authorized to speak on behalf of his four children.Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, Persoff and his family moved to the United States in 1929, and after serving in the U.S.
Army in World War II he relocated to New York to pursue a career in theater. He became a member of the famed Actors Studio in the late 1940s, studying with Elia Kazan, who would pay him a reported $75 to play the silent cab driver in Waterfront.Persoff was also performing in small roles on television during the early 1950s, a career that would flourish in the years to come.
A small sampling of his early TV roles included such shows as Goodyear Playhouse, The Philco Television Playhouse, Appointment with Adventure, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Kraft Theatre, The United States Steel Hour, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Playhouse 90.Subsequent decades brought roles on scores of television series, making Persoff one of the most recognizable character actors of the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s and into the ’90s.
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