Joseph Buloff Explained

Joseph Buloff
Birth Date:December 6, 1899[1]
Birth Place:Vilna, Lithuania, Russian Empire
Death Date:[2]
Death Place:Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation:Actor
Years Active:1923–1981
Spouse:[3]
Children:1[4]

Joseph Buloff (December 6, 1899 – February 27, 1985) was a Jewish actor and director known for his work in Broadway and Yiddish theatre.[2] He received the Itzik Manger Prize for contributions to Yiddish letters in 1974.

Life and career

Buloff was born on December 6, 1899, in Vilna, in what was then the Russian Empire and is now Lithuania.[1]

Buloff debuted on stage with the Jewish State Theatre in Vilna.[5] He joined the Vilna Troupe when he was a teenager, and "his first major success" came in that company's production of Day and Night by S. Ansky.[3] While with the troupe, he also met Luba Kadison, whom he married and remained with until his death six decades later. They had a daughter, Barbara.

Buloff immigrated to the United States in 1927 and worked with Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish theatre company. Buloff and Kadison toured Europe and the Western Hemisphere in the early 1930s, acting with Yiddish troupes in the countries that they visited. Their productions included adaptations of works by Dostoevski and Tolstoy and translated versions of works by Chekhov, Molière, and Pirandello.

Broadway productions in which Buloff appeared included The Price (1979), The Fifth Season (1975), The Wall (1960), Moonbirds (1959), Once More, With Feeling (1958), Mrs. McThing (1952), The Whole World Over (1947), Oklahoma! (1943), Spring Again (1941), My Sister Eileen (1940), Morning Star (1940), The Man from Cairo (1938), To Quito and Back (1937), Call Me Ziggy (1937), and Don't Look Now (1936).[6]

On February 27, 1985, Buloff died at his Manhattan home, aged 86.[2] He left a memoir, written in Yiddish, which was translated by Joseph Singer and published by Harvard University Press in 1991 as From the Old Marketplace.[7]

Legacy

Some of Buloff's papers are preserved at YIVO[8] and at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.[9]

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1941Let's Make Music Joe Bellah
1941They Met in Argentina Santiago, O'Shea's Trainer
1947Carnegie Hall Anton Tribik
1948To the Victor Bolyanov
1948The Loves of Carmen Remendado
1949A Kiss in the Dark Peter Danilo
1950Monticello, Here We Come
1956Somebody Up There Likes Me Benny
1957Silk Stockings Ivanov
1981Reds Joe Volski

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: Joseph Buloff . December 5, 2020 . San Francisco Chronicle . March 1, 1985 . 30. . ProQuest.
  2. Web site: Berger. Joseph. Joseph Buloff, an Actor, Dies; Mainstay of Yiddish Theater. February 28, 1985. The New York Times. November 25, 2017.
  3. News: Howe . Irving . The Art of Joseph Buloff . December 5, 2020 . The New York Times . March 31, 1985 . H 4. . ProQuest.
  4. Bevya Rosten, "In Short: Nonfiction: They Opened in Vilna". New York Times (April 25, 1993): BR20.
  5. News: Schack . William . Introducing Joseph Buloff of Russia . December 5, 2020 . The New York Times . November 23, 1930 . 112. . ProQuest.
  6. Web site: Joseph Buloff . Internet Broadway Database . The Broadway League . December 5, 2020 . https://archive.today/20201205212307/https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/joseph-buloff-14313 . December 5, 2020.
  7. Wisse . Ruth R. . The Survivor's Voice – From the Old Marketplace by Joseph Buloff and translated by Joseph Singer . December 5, 2020 . The New Republic . June 24, 1991 . 40. . ProQuest.
  8. Web site: Guide to the Papers of Joseph Buloff (1899–1985) and Luba Kadison (1906–2006). Solomon. Rabinowitz. Rachel S.. Harrison. 2009. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. May 28, 2020.
  9. Web site: Liavon. Yurevich. Joseph Buloff papers. New York Public Library. November 25, 2017.