‘Some Like It Hot’ Actor Nehemiah Persoff Passes Away

Actor Nehemiah Persoff, who is best known for ‘Some Like It Hot,’ ‘On the Waterfront’ and ‘Yentl,’ passed away on Tuesday (April 5) night. He was at an acute care facility in San Luis Obispo, California, at the time. 

His son Dan confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter. Known as an amazing character actor, Persoff will always be remembered for his role as Henry Fonda’s brother-in-law in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Wrong Man’ (1956). He was also seen as Humphrey Bogart’s boxing business partner in ‘The Harder They Fall’ (1957). He was seen as the ruthless chieftain Graile in Michael Curtiz’s ‘The Comancheros’ (1961) and as an eccentric physicist in ‘The Power’ (1968). He played the role of a poverty-stricken Jew, who is trying to flee Hitler in the film 'Voyage of the Damned’ (1976).

He was also part of the musical drama ‘Yentl’ by Barbra Streisand. He played the role of her father in the drama. His character secretly tutors her character in the Talmud and his death drives her to disguise herself as a man and to go to a religious school.

In a 2008 interview for Films of Golden Age, the actor spoke about how he came on board with the musical. “One day before filming, Barbra invited me for tea in her house in London. … She told me about losing her father at the tender age of two, of her early years in Brooklyn, and so on. She said, ‘Let’s read,'” he said, adding, ““As we read, I looked at her and thought, ‘What courage you have to take on this film, to write, direct, act and sing.’ I read, ‘Yentl, I’m so proud of you,’ and at that moment, the emotion welled up in me.”

Billy Wilder’s ‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959) saw Persoff as Little Bonaparte, a gangster.