Nehemiah Persoff Movies
Trivia buffs and diehard fans of Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront will know that the non-speaking cab driver in the film's famed 'taxicab scene between Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger was noted character actor Nehemiah Persoff. An American resident from age 9, the Jerusalem-born Persoff spent his early adulthood working for the New York subway system. Asked in later years why he chose acting as a profession, Persoff would comment that the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe compelled him to prove himself worthy of his "gift of life." On stage in community and non-professional productions from 1940, he studied with Stella Adler at the Actor's Studio before graduating to Broadway. His first film appearance, in 1948, was in the Manhattan-based The Naked City. After attaining prominence in the mid-1950s, Persoff alternated between villainy and sympathetic roles, utilizing his ear for dialects to depict a wide array of nationalities. He was often cast as a gangster, both serious (Johnny Torrio in the 1959 feature Capone, Jake Guzik on the TV series The Untouchables) and satiric (Little Bonaparte in 1959's Some Like It Hot). His credits in the 1980s included Stalin in the 1980 TV movie FDR: The Last Year, Barbra Streisand's father in Yentl (1983), and the robust voice of Papa Mousekewitz in the 1986 animated feature An American Tail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1998
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Fievel the Mouse returns in this direct-to-video release, the third installment in the An American Tail series. Fievel (voice of Thomas Dekker) and his friend Tony Toponi find a map that they believe points to a treasure buried somewhere beneath Old New York, and the plucky rodent is determined to find it. However, what he discovers under the city is a tribe of Native American mice who were driven underground by prejudiced European immigrants. Fievel makes new friends with the outcasts, and he comes to realize that they have the same right to live freely in America as anyone else. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Dekker, Nehemiah Persoff, (more)
- 1993
Nehemiah Persoff guest stars as elderly Jewish tailor David Steinmetz, who willingly confesses "I killed the woman I love" when police find the body of his invalid wife in their apartment. Steinmetz insists that his wife begged him to help her commit suicide, but the facts do not bear this out. And then Stone (Michael Moriarty) unearths evidence that Steinmetz, who claims to have been a Holocaust survivor, may actually have been a Nazi collaborator. The climax of the story brings Stone into open conflict with Steinmetz's fiercely protective daughter (Diane Venora). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This is one of several seventh-season Murder She Wrote episodes introduced by Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) but starring Dennis Stanton (Keith Michell), a jewel thief turned insurance investigator. Dennis is sucked into the story when a disreputable former associate shows up in San Francisco, possessing what he claims to be a rare original manuscript by Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain. In rapid succession, the manuscript is proven to be forgery by a book expert, the manuscript is torched, and the expert is murdered. As Stanton tries to prove that his old "pal" is innocent, his trail is dogged by the ineluctable Rhoda Markowitz (Hallie Todd) and the irascible police lieutenant Perry Catalano (Ken Swofford). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
While on a dangerous shuttlecraft mission, Data is kidnapped by hobby-obsessed space trader Kivas Fajo (Saul Rubinek), who wants to add the android to his personal collection. To cover his tracks, Fajo destroys the shuttle, leading the Enterprise crew to sadly conclude that Data is dead. Suppressing their grief, the crew sets about to complete Data's mission, while the "deceased" android attempts to outwit his captor. First telecast May 12, 1990, "The Most Toys" was written by Shari Goodhartz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
The LAPD Internal Affairs Division takes a special interest in the murder of a mob accountant. Perusing the dead man's list of debtors, the Division finds the name "C. Devane"--which of course happens to match up with the name of Hunter's superior officer. Though Captain Devane (Charles Hallahan laughs off the implication that he might be even peripherally associated with the Mob, the ensuing investigation is no laughing matter, especially to Hunter (Fred Dryer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An American Tail is a beautifully rendered animated flim that tells an overly familiar story in terms children can easily understand. Fievel Mousekewitz and his family of Russian-Jewish mice escape from their homeland in the late 1800s, boarding a boat headed toward America to evade the Czarist rule of the Russian cats. Fievel, however, is separated from his family upon his arrival in New York City, and he discovers to his horror that there are cats in America too (his father said there weren't). Fievel meets his share of friendly and hostile mice, and he eventually befriends a cat as well. Former Disney animator Don Bluth co-produced and directed this often heartwarming yarn, the first animated feature presented by Steven Spielberg, and it has its charms despite a number of cliché situations. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cathianne Blore, Dom DeLuise, (more)
- 1985
When a priceless Torah is stolen by a particularly mean-spirited smuggler, Magnum (Tom Selleck) teams with Higgins' old friend, Rabbi Asher Solomon (Nehemiah Persoff), to retrieve the sacred document. A battle-scarred survivor of European persecution against the Jewish race, Rabbi Solomon had managed at great personal sacrifice to save the Torah from destruction during the Holocaust, and he's not about to give it up to thieves at this point. Not surprisingly, as the case progresses, the viewer learns that there is lot more than the Torah at stake! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This ghostly made-for-television romance tells the story of a struggling widower who finds that life becomes easier once his beloved comes back from the grave to assist him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Asner, Mariette Hartley, (more)
- 1981
Ernest Pintoff--jazz trumpeter, painter, animated cartoonist, film theorist--directed his first dramatic feature, Harvey Middleman, Fireman, in 1965. Since that time, Pintoff has refused to be stylistically pigeonholed, turning out everything from comedy concerts (Dynamite Chicken) to spoofish T&A exploitation (Lunch Wagon Girls). St. Helens takes Pintoff into the realm of docudrama, using film clips of the May 18, 1980 eruption of the eponymous volcano to lend credibility to his dramatic re-enactments. Art Carney plays Harry Truman--not the President, but a real-life stubborn old codger who refused to leave his St. Helen's vacation cabin despite the oncoming natural disaster. Carney brings so much vitality to the proceedings that it seems a shame Pintoff couldn't alter the facts and provide Truman with a happy ending. Appearing fleetingly in St. Helen's are Ron "Superfly" O'Neal, Albert Salmi and Nehemiah Persoff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Art Carney, David Huffman, (more)
- 1980
Condominium is a two-part, four-hour TV adaptation of the novel by John D. McDonald. The setting is a hastily constructed Florida high-rise, assembled at the least possible cost by its greedy owners. An oncoming hurricane threatens to topple the structure and its residents into the ocean. Various degrees of greed, lust, terror and concern are displayed by stars Steve Forrest, Dan Haggerty, Ralph Bellamy, Barbara Eden, Stuart Whitman, Jack Jones and Pamela Hensley. Produced for the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series, Condominium was first made available to local stations on November 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
In this drama, a famous criminologist draws from his amazing bag of scientific and technical tricks to locate a psycho-killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Jason Robards stars as the ailing, 62-year-old President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in F.D.R.: The Last Year. Though visibly frail and weary, Roosevelt runs for a precedent-setting fourth term. He also oversees plans for the D-Day Invasion and engages in tempestuous summit meetings with his wartime allies Stalin (Nehemiah Persoff) and Churchill (Wensley Pithey). Eileen Heckart co-stars as Eleanor Roosevelt, while Kim Hunter plays his "great and good friend," artist Lucy Rutherfurd, who is at his side when he suffers his fatal cerebral hemorrhage in April of 1945. The 3-hour, made-for-TV F.D.R.: The Last Year was first telecast May 15, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The made-for-television movie The Henderson Monster is about a genetic scientist who experiments with the creation of new life in a small university town. After he is discovered by the community, the town is gripped by an ethical debate. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Experiment in Terra is a 60-minute episode of the TV sci-fi series Battlestar Gallactica. Joining regulars Lorne Greene, Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict is guest villain John Calicos as the outer space "quisling" Baltar. In plotting his escape from Battlestar Galactica, Baltar also plans to free the imprisoned rebels of the planet Terra. You might get some fun guessing what planet Terra is really supposed to be and spotting how many plot elements are "borrowed" from Star Wars. Experiment in Terra was first shown March 11, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, (more)
- 1979
The Rebels was the second "Operation Prime Time" miniseries to be based on author John Jakes' Kent Family Chronicles (the first was The Bastard). The saga of Philip Kent (Andrew Stevens), illegitimate son of a British blueblood, picks up with Kent fighting in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Part One of this two-part endeavor busies itself with setting up characters, places and events; Part Two finds Kent and his pal Judson Fletcher (Don Johnson) teaming up to prevent the assassination of General George Washington (Peter Graves). The enormous all-star cast includes Richard Basehart, Doug McClure, Joan Blondell, Tom Bosley, Macdonald Carey, Robert Vaughan, William Daniels and Nehemiah Persoff; William Conrad does off-screen duty as narrator. The Rebels was syndicated to local TV stations beginning the week of May 14, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
When it was first made available to television in 1978, the three-hour Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women was previewed to only a few carefully selected TV critics. Barred from the preview were those older columnists who would have most likely harbored pleasant memories of the Oscar-winning 1936 theatrical feature The Great Ziegfeld, which is approximately ten times the better film. The TV movie version stars Paul Shenar as Broadway showman Flo Ziegfeld, looking for all the world like a spoiled prep-schooler dressed up in his daddy's tuxedo. While the film admirably attempts to encompass every aspect of Ziegfeld's public and private life, the sense of beauty and grandeur, so vital to the success of the 21 "Follies" stage shows mounted between 1908 and 1931, is totally missing. The film's structure is curiously aloof: The four most important women in Ziegfeld's life dispassionately narrate the story, a couple of them "from beyond the grave." Valerine Perrine comes off best as actress Lillian Lorraine; Barbara Parkins struggles with a wavering foreign accent as Ziegfeld's first wife Anna Held (she even gets a "telephone scene" ripped off from The Great Ziegfeld's Luise Rainer); Pamela Peardon is shrill and unlikeable as dancer Marilyn Miller; and Samantha Eggar is saintly to the point of tedium as Billie Burke, the second Mrs. Ziegfeld. Those expecting to see an unending stream of Ziegfeld headliners will have to settle for fleeting cameos by "celebrity look-alike" actors playing Fanny Brice, Will Rogers and W. C. Fields. This is the sort of clichefest in which Ziegfeld announces that his greatest days are yet to come--just before we cut to a title reading "1929." Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women serves only one positive purpose--to whet the viewer's appetite for a cable-TV revival of The Great Ziegfeld. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Shenar
- 1978
Word is about the newly discovered text that is allegedly written by the younger brother of Jesus Christ. It the document is genuine, it would throw the world's theological community into chaos. David Janssen plays an archaeologist who travels to Italy to verify the document's origins. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The Oleson family is saddled with Mr. Oleson's obnoxious nephew Peter (Michael Sharrett), who has been sent to Walnut Grove in hopes that he will learn the proper values in life. Somehow or other, Peter ends up on the Ingalls farm, where he rapidly proceeds to rub everyone the wrong way. Even so, can there be any doubt that the troublesome youth will change his ways before the final fade-out? Guest star Nehemiah Persoff appears as Peter's father -- Scandanavian accent and all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, (more)
- 1978
Michael Landon wrote and directed this pilot film about a writer who is framed for murdering a politician's son; after serving his sentence, he goes in search of the real killer. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1977
It appears to be a clear-cut case of brain damage when young boxer Luke Stokes (Rodney Hoston) collapses and dies right after a championship bout. But the boxer's widow (Lynne Moody) insists that her husband was drugged just before the match. Medical examiner Quincy investigates, only to find that his own life is in jeopardy if he makes the "wrong" diagnosis. Legendary heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis appears as himself in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy is a TV dramatization of the notorious Cold War incident of 1960. The story is told from the point of view of Powers (Lee Majors), an American pilot who was shot down over Russia while taking photographs on behalf of the CIA. The event occurs just before a crucial summit meeting between American President Dwight D. Eisenhower (James Flavin) and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (Thayer David). Eisenhower tries to cover up the incident, allowing Khrushchev to make propagandistic hay of the whole affair. Robert E. Thompson's teleplay tends to depict the Americans as jerks, and the Russians as essentially good guys; even Powers' Soviet interrogator, portrayed by Nehemiah Persoff, comes off comparatively sympathetic. Also in the cast are Noah Beery as Powers' father and Lew Ayres as Allen Dulles. Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy was originally telecast September 29, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In his third Baretta appearance, Burt Young is cast as Johnny Chekko, the longtime best friend of undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake). Unfortunately, Chekko has taken a different path in life, and is now employed as a professional hit man. Thus it is that Baretta enters into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with his former friend to prevent a high-profile assassination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Edward Grover, (more)
- 1975
In this fact-based made-for-TV tearjerker, the promising life of a talented teenage athlete is suddenly destroyed when he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Despite the bad news, the boy does all he can to fight the disease. His devoted mother supports him to the bitter, inevitable end. The story is based on the experiences of Doris Lund, the late Eric's mother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
