Zvee Scooler
Birth : 1899-12-01, Kamianets-Podilskyï, Ukraine
Death : 1985-03-25
History
Zvee Scooler (December 1, 1899 – March 25, 1985) was a Russian-born American actor and radio commentator. He was born in Kamenets-Podolsky (now Ukraine). He performed in both Yiddish and English, on the stage, television, and film. He is probably best known for his roles in Fiddler on the Roof, playing Mordcha, the innkeeper in the Broadway play and the rabbi in the film version. He appeared as Duddy's grandfather in the 1974 film "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz". Another of his more notable roles was that of Boris' father in Woody Allen's Love and Death.
He was known as the Grammeister on WEVD, a Yiddish radio station in New York City. Every Sunday, Scooler presented a ten-minute segment on the radio show, Forward Hour, which was news and commentary in rhyme.
He died in New York City on March 25, 1985, at age 85.
Source: Article "Zvee Scooler" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Rebbe
A put-upon Jewish deli owner in Brooklyn dreams of getting out from underneath the thumb of his domineering father and his haughty fashion-model girlfriend by buying his own restaurant in midtown Manhattan.
Pa
This film is made up of three segments that share no plot but have a general thematic relationship. In the first segment, Virginia and her three children are left by her shiftless husband and she is courted by an old beau who is now divorced. In the second, a divorced woman reacts to some unexpected revelations from her aged father. In the third, a childless, middle-aged social worker is swept into an affair with a young cab driver and finds herself pregnant.
First Chessplayer
When a Jewish songstress is plucked from the stage and sent to Auschwitz, she and other musicians find themselves assigned to a terrible task—using their talents to soothe fellow prisoners who are sentenced to die in the gas chambers.
Zharko, leader of the Romanis in NYC, passes his position of leadership on to his unwilling grandson, Dave, leading to infighting between Dave and his father.
Old Man
Martin and Sally Cramer grew up on the hardscrabble Lower East Side, where Sally still teaches; meanwhile, Martin's the head of a fancy private school. Romantic dalliances with others convince them that they're meant to be together despite their differences, a decision that's cemented, oddly enough, by an over-the-top argument that draws the police.
Rabbi
A Russian emigre prides himself on the way he's molded himself into a real Yankee in the USA, though the world he lives in, New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is almost exclusively populated by other Jewish immigrants. When his wife finally arrives in the New World, however, she has a lot of assimilating to do.
Father
In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
Grandfather
The younger son of a working-class Jewish family in Montreal, Duddy Kravitz yearns to make a name for himself in society. This film chronicles his short and dubious rise to power, as well as his changing relationships with family and friends. Along the way the film explores the themes of anti-semitism and the responsibilities which come with adulthood.
New York Rabbi (uncredited)
In this riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities, Victor Pivert, a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Slimane, an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assasins from Slimane's country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who's returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert's dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who's about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob.
Jeweler
An insurance investigator romances a wealthy young beauty when he suspects she may be involved in fencing stolen jewels.
Rabbi
In a small Jewish community in a pre-Revolutionary Russian village, a poor milkman, determined to find good husbands for his five daughters, consults the traditional matchmaker – and also has words with God.
Zenoitis
A Greek American father of a dying boy decides to take his son to Greece to breathe the clean air of his ancestors, in an attempt to save the boy's life. However, money is a problem.
Old Man
Christopher Gill is a psychotic killer who uses various disguises to trick and strangle his victims. Moe Brummel is a single and harassed New York City police detective who starts to get phone calls from the strangler and builds a strange alliance as a result. Kate Palmer is a swinging, hip tour guide who witnesses the strangler leaving her dead neighbor's apartment and sets her sights on the detective. Moe's live-in mother wishes her son would be a successful Jewish doctor like his big brother.
Mr. Chadakis
The story of a mentally handicapped middle-aged man and how he, and his elderly parents who must take care of him, manage to get along in New York City.
Charlie
Wealthy, powerful sweatshop owner falls in love with employee's teenage daughter, who feels obligated to marry him after he shares his wealth with her parents, though she actually loves a young Marxist unionizer.
