American actor
Leo Fuchs |
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 Fuchs preparing for a role in 1949 |
| Born | (1911-05-15)May 15, 1911 |
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| Died | December 31, 1994(1994-12-31) (aged 83) |
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| Occupation | actor |
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Leo Fuchs (May 15, 1911 – December 31, 1994) was a Polish-born American actor.[1] According to YIVO, he was born Avrum Leib Fuchs in Warsaw;[2] according to Joel Schechter, he was born in Lwów, Galicia, then Poland, now called Lviv, Ukraine.[3]
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. 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),[4] was "a leading lady of the musical theatre who perished in the Holocaust of the 1940s,"[5] shot dead by Nazi Germans.[6] 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.[3]
Career
His American debut was at the Second Avenue Theater in the Yiddish Theater District in Lucky Boy with Moishe Oysher in 1929.[7] He moved to New York City in 1935.[2] In his prime, he was known as "The Yiddish Fred Astaire",[8][9] 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. In 1940 he starred in Amerikaner Shadkhen (American Matchmaker).[10] He divorced in 1941[7] and later married Rebecca Richman.
Starting in the 1960s, Fuchs performed in English-language plays and television,[2] as well as Hollywood films, including The Story of Ruth (1960).[1] Two of his best-known roles were in The Frisco Kid (1979), in which he played with Gene Wilder, and as Hymie Krichinsky in the film Avalon (1990).[3][1] He died in Los Angeles in 1994.[2]
