Nehemiah Persoff was a Jewish-American actor who worked frequently as an actor in the 40s, 50s and 60s, appearing in more than 200 television series, films, and plays in a career spanning over 50 years, beginning after World War II.
Born August 2, 1919 in Jerusalem, he immigrated with his family to the United States in 1929 and served in the United States Army during World War Two. After the war, he worked as a subway electrician doing signal maintenance while pursuing an acting career in the New York Theater, getting accepted into the Actors Studio in 1947.
One of his first acting jobs was in "Some Like It Hot," parlaying him into roles in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and "The Comancheros." He also did considerable work as a character actor on television, appearing in such TV shows as "The Big Valley," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Twilight Zone," "The Untouchables," "Gunsmoke," Gilligan's Island, "The Wild Wild West," "Hawaii Five-O," "Charlie's Angels" and other TV shows through the Eighties. He also appeared in the movie "Yentl" with Barbra Streisand in 1988 and the animated movie, "An American Tail." However, as health problems began to bother him, he retired from acting to pursue painting, mostly in water colors. He lived with his wife in Cambria, California until her death in 2021. He passed away on April 5, 2022 at the age of 102.