David Opatoshu


David Opatoshu was an American actor. He is best known for his role in the film Exodus.

Biography

Opatoshu began his acting career in the Yiddish theater. Following his tenure in the role of "Mr. Carp" in the 1938 national tour of the play Golden Boy, he made his Broadway debut in 1940 in the play Night Music.
After serving with the Army Air Forces in the South Pacific during World War II, Opatoshu returned to Manhattan and worked in radio, theater, television and films. His wartime experiences provided the material for Between Sea and Sand, a collection of short stories he published in Yiddish in 1946.

Films

His first film, The Light Ahead, directed by Henry Felt and Edgar G. Ulmer, is notable for being entirely in Yiddish. Opatoshu appeared as the homicide detective, Sgt. Ben Miller, in Jules Dassin's film noir, The Naked City produced by Mark Hellinger. He had a small uncredited role in Dassin's Thieves Highway. In 1953 he appeared in Henri Verneuil's Public Enemy Number One.
In 1958, he played a supporting character in The Brothers Karamazov with his future Star Trek co-star William Shatner. He played the Irgun leader, a fictional character based on Menachem Begin's role in the Irgun, in Otto Preminger's 1960 film Exodus. He played the father of Benny Rampell in 1963's The Cardinal uncredited.
In 1965, he played the supervillain in Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, then portrayed Herr Jacobi, one of the people who help Paul Newman and Julie Andrews escape from East Germany in Alfred Hitchcock's 1966 film Torn Curtain.
In 1967, Opatoshu played Morris Kolowitz, the father of the main character David, in Carl Reiner's directorial debut Enter Laughing. In the 1977 film, Raid on Entebbe, he played the part of Menachem Begin.

Television

His career in television began in 1949 and lasted through the 1980s.
In 1963, he co-starred with James Doohan in an episode of The Twilight Zone titled "Valley of the Shadow". He guest-starred in the 1964 The Outer Limits episode "A Feasibility Study"; in the 1965 Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "The Price of Doom"; and in the 1965 two-part episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. called "The Alexander the Greater Affair".
In 1967, he played Anan 7 in the original Star Trek series episode "A Taste of Armageddon". In 1969, he figured in a Hawaii Five-O episode "Face of the Dragon", and also in the 1969 season 3 Ironside episode "L'Chayim", and in Mannix, in the episode "A Pittance of Faith", as Mr. Lardelli, in the same year.
Opatoshu played in a 1970 episode of Daniel Boone as "Tamenund", an aged Pequot Indian bent on revenge for his tribe's near-extinction. He was also in the "No Way to Treat a Relative" episode of the 1973 situation comedy Needles and Pins, the Kojak episode "Both Sides of the Law", the 1977 The Bionic Woman episode "Doomsday Is Tomorrow", the 1978 Little House on the Prairie episode "I'll Be Waving as You Drive Away", the 1981 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century episode "Time of the Hawk", and the 1981 miniseries Masada. In 1986 he played an Iranian ambassador in the TV thriller Under Siege, about Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States.
On October 30, 1989, Opatashu guest-starred as the Tenctonese ex-slave Paul Revere in the episode "Night of the Screams", of the television series Alien Nation.
In 1991, he won an Emmy Award for his guest appearance in the episode "A Prayer for the Goldsteins" of the ABC series Gabriel's Fire.

Stage

Opatoshu appeared on Broadway in Silk Stockings, Once More, With Feeling, The Wall, Bravo Giovanni, Lorenzo, and Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?.

Screenwriter

David Opatoshu also wrote the screenplay for the film Romance of a Horsethief, based on a novel by his father, Joseph Opatoshu.

Family

David Opatoshu was survived by his wife, Lillian Weinberg, a psychiatric social worker, whom he married on June 10, 1941. They had one child together, screenwriter Danny Opatoshu. Lillian died on May 13, 2000.

Complete filmography

The Light Ahead — FishkeThe Naked City — Sergeant Dave Miller Illegal Entry — Al Any Number Can Play — Bartender Thieves' Highway — Frenchy — Thug in Cap The Goldbergs — Mr. DuttonThe Most Wanted Man — Slim le TueurCrowded Paradise The Brothers Karamazov — Captain SnegiryovWhere Is Thy Brother? — FatherParty Girl — Lou ForbesCimarron — Sol LevyExodus — Akiva Ben CanaanBlack City — Il Commissario NatalucciThe Best of Enemies — Italian Physician BernasconiGuns of Darkness — President RiveraThe Cardinal — Mr. Rampell Sands of Beersheba — DaoudOne Spy Too Many — Mr. KavonTarzan and the Valley of Gold — Augustus VineroTorn Curtain — Mr. JacobiThe Defector — OrlovskyEnter Laughing — Mr. Morris KolowitzHa-Dybbuk — ZadikThe Fixer — LatkeThe Smugglers — Alfredo FaggioDeath of a Gunfighter — Edward RosenbloomThe D.A.: Murder One — Dr. Rudolph GraingerA Walk in the Spring Rain — Incident in San Francisco — Herschel RomanRomance of a Horsethief — Schloime KradnikPortrait: A Man Whose Name Was John — Rabbi Isaac HerzogConspiracy of Terror — Arthur HorowitzFrancis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident — GrinevRaid on Entebbe — Menachem BeginWoman on the Run — Ed MillsZiegfeld: The Man and His Women — Flo's FatherWho'll Stop the Rain — BenderIn Search of Historic Jesus — HerodAmericathon — Abdul MuhammadBeyond Evil — Dr. SolomonFlash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All — Vultan Forced Vengeance — Sam PaschalForty Days of Musa Dagh — Henry Morgenthau, Sr.Under Siege — Ambassador Sajid MoktasanniConspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 — Judge Julius Hoffman

Partial television credits

Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Mr. CooneyThe Walter Winchell File — Triple "A"Decision as Sam MischnerOne Step Beyond — Gerald PerkinsAlfred Hitchcock Presents as Pedro SiquerasThe Outer Limits — Ralph CashmanThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Mr. DulongDr. Kildare — Fred Kirsh