Nehemiah Persoff
Biography
Nehemiah Persoff was an American film and television actor. Persoff emigrated with his family from Palestine to the United States in 1929. He began to take an interest in acting in the 1940s, and after serving in the Army during World War II, he began to pursue his acting career in the New York Theater. In 1947, he was accepted into the Actor's Studio and eventually began appearing in films.
His film credits include: On the Waterfront, Some Like It Hot, Al Capone, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Voyage of the Damned, The Comancheros, Yentl (portraying Barbra Streisand's character's father), Twins and the American Tail (animated-film series) (voiced, "Papa Mousekewitz").
Persoff appeared in such television series as, Five Fingers ("The Moment of Truth"), The Big Valley ("Legend of a General", Parts I & II, episode), The Twilight Zone ("Judgment Night" episode), Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Heart of Gold" episode), The Untouchables, Naked City, The Legend of Jesse James, Gunsmoke, The Wild Wild West, Hawaii Five-O, Ellery Queen ("The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse" episode), Mission: Impossible (3 episodes), Adam-12 ("Vendetta" episode), Charlie's Angels, Hunter, Columbo, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Magnum, P.I., Law & Order and Chicago Hope.
In the mid-1980s, Persoff began to pursue painting, specializing in watercolour. This was at a time when health problems forced him to decrease his acting workload.
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Full filmography
- Law & Order (1990) as David Steinmetz
- Columbo (1971) as Jesse Jerome
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) as Toff
- Murder, She Wrote (1984) as Constantin Stavros
- Hawaii Five-O (1968) as Harry Cardonus
- Hawaii Five-O (1968) as Winkler
- Hawaii Five-O (1968) as Leo Paoli
- Hawaii Five-O (1968) as Cordell
- Hawaii Five-O (1968) as Victor Palua
- Hawaii Five-O (1968) as Allie Francis
- Chicago Hope (1994) as Rabbi Ben Taubler
- The Facts of Life (1979)
- MacGyver (1985) as Sam Bolinski
- Adam-12 (1968) as Angelo Covelli
- Little House on the Prairie (1974) as Mr. Olaf Lundstrom
- Mannix (1967) as Anton Wojeska
- The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) as Ed Kagan
- The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) as Major Popov
- Magnum, P.I. (1980) as Rabbi Asher Solomon
- Burke's Law (1963) as Jason Flonder
- Burke's Law (1963) as Wilhelm Kasimer
- Burke's Law (1963) as Albert Indigo, 'Mr. I'
- The Wild Wild West (1965) as Major Hazard
- The Wild Wild West (1965) as Gen. Andreas Cassinello