By James Barber
Nehemiah Persoff, gifted with one of the greatest names in Hollywood history, played more than 200 roles in a long career that took off after he served in the Army during World War II. The actor died at age 102 on April 5, 2022.
Born in Palestine, Persoff immigrated to the United States in 1929 at age 10. Drafted into the Army in 1942, his commanding officers recognized his performing talent and assigned him to an acting company that traveled around the world to entertain troops. After he left the service in 1945, he worked as an electrician before getting his professional training at The Actors Studio in New York.
Once he broke through, Persoff worked constantly until he retired in 1999 and took up watercolor painting at his home in California. Few actors have worked as steadily or for as long as Persoff.
If you watched television in the ’60s,’70s or ’80s, Persoff seemed to be a guest star on virtually every show. You may not recognize his name, but you definitely saw him on “Columbo,” “Mannix,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Wonder Woman,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Murder, She Wrote,” “Law & Order,” “Barney Miller,” “Fantasy Island,” “Baretta,” “Gunsmoke,” “Love, American Style,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” “Adam-12,” “Mod Squad,” “The Wild Wild West,” “Mission: Impossible,” :Magnum, P.I.” “I Spy,” “the Big Valley,” “The Untouchables,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Gilligan’s Island” or “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
Persoff worked more in television than in movies, but he had some especially memorable appearances in feature films. Here are some highlights from an amazing career.
1. Cab Driver, “On the Waterfront” (1954)
Persoff was the uncredited driver in one of the greatest scenes in movie history, the cab scene in “On the Waterfront” where the washed-up boxer played by Marlon Brando tells his brother (Rod Steiger) that “I coulda been a contender” if he didn’t take a dive for the mob in an important bout.
Most streaming clips from the movie chop off Persoff’s appearance at the beginning and end of the scene, but you can’t forget that face when you see the entire movie.
2. Pancho Hernando Gonzalez Enriques Rodriguez, “Gilligan’s Island” (1965)
Persoff, never afraid of an outrageous accent, plays a Latin American dictator exiled to the island. He expects solitude but instead encounters the castaways. After selecting Gilligan to be his second in command, he names himself ruler of the island. As with every episode of the show, the visitor gets off the island and fails to tell anyone about the stranded group he left behind.
3. Waxey Gordon, “The Untouchables” (1960)
Persoff played the real-life gangster and “beer baron” Waxey Gordon on a memorable episode of the organized crime-buster drama series. An extended on-camera verbal showdown between our hero, Eliot Ness (Robert Stack), and Gordon is ridiculous if you’re hoping for real-life drama but an amazing opportunity for Persoff to show off his menacing skills.
4. Little Bonaparte, “Some Like It Hot” (1959)
Some movie fans think Billy Wilder’s “Some Like It Hot” is the greatest comedy ever made. Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe were never better, but Persoff is unforgettable in a minor role as the mob boss whose birthday party forces our heroes to dress as women to hide out as members of an all-girl band. The actor messes with an oversized hearing aid throughout the scene, and the payoff once the gunman leaps out of the birthday cake is priceless.
5. Papa Mousekewitz, “An American Tail” (1986)
Great character actors usually make for great animated voiceover actors. Persoff had an outstanding run late in life as the voice of Fievel Mousekewitz’s father in the 1986 hit movie and its three sequels.
Director Don Bluth had walked out of the Disney studios, because he thought they were no longer committed to animation, and movies like “An American Tail” helped keep the genre alive until Disney came to its senses and recommitted to the art form that built the company.
There are dozens of other unforgettable performances that don’t have clips available on YouTube. In the “Night and Fog” episode of “Law & Order” from season 3, Persoff plays a Polish immigrant who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II. He’s the rabbi who teaches his daughter to read the Talmud in Barbra Streisand’s musical, “Yentl.” Persoff shined in three different guest appearances on the original “Mission: Impossible” television show in the late ’60s. And there was a memorable early turn as Al Capone’s mentor, Johnny Torrio, opposite Rod Steiger in the 1959 movie, “Al Capone.”
Thanks to the Army officers who recognized his talents and gave him his start. We’ll never see another generation of military-trained performers to compare with the actors who served in WWII.
