Biographies: Paul Muni - Actor

Biographies

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Ukrainian actor born September 22, 1895 Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire (present day Lviv, Ukraine) as Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund. He won an Oscar in 1937 for The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), a NYFCC Award in 1937 for The Life of Emile Zola (1937), a Mar del Plata Award in 1960 for The Last Angry Man (1959). In 1969, he received a star on the Walk of Fame. He married Bella Finkel (February 8, 1898 – October 1, 1971), an actress in the Yiddish theatre. They remained married until Muni's death on August 25, 1967 in Montecito, California, in the United States of America. Born into a Yiddish-speaking Jewish family, Muni was educated at public schools in New York and Cleveland. In 1908, he joined the Yiddish Art Theater in New York for 4 years and moved between several Yiddish theaters until 1926. He worked in English-language plays, signed a contract with Fox to work in the cinema in 1928, and moved between Hollywood and Broadway. He excelled in cinema and theater, but withdrew later due to a serious eye ailment causing deterioration in his eyesight. He suffered from rheumatic heart, which forced him to retire at the end of the fifties. Among his most important works: Scarface (1932), I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), and The Life of Emile Zola (1937).

• 20 February 2022
• Christina Aziz