Joseph Buloff

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.[5]

Joseph Buloff
Buloff in 1960
Born(1899-12-06)December 6, 1899[1]
Vilna, Lithuania, Russian Empire[1]
DiedFebruary 27, 1985(1985-02-27) (aged 85)[2]
Manhattan, New York, U.S.[2]
OccupationActor
Years active1923–1981
Spouse
​
(m. 1925)​
[3]
Children1[4]

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.[6] 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.[3] They had a daughter, Barbara.[4]

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.[3]

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).[7]

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.[8]

Legacy

Some of Buloff's papers are preserved at YIVO[5] and at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.[9]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1941Let's Make MusicJoe Bellah
1941They Met in ArgentinaSantiago, O'Shea's Trainer
1947Carnegie HallAnton Tribik
1948To the VictorBolyanov
1948The Loves of CarmenRemendado
1949A Kiss in the DarkPeter Danilo
1950Monticello, Here We Come
1956Somebody Up There Likes MeBenny
1957Silk StockingsIvanov
1981RedsJoe Volski

References
  1. "Joseph Buloff". San Francisco Chronicle. March 1, 1985. p. 30. ProQuest 301868665. Retrieved December 5, 2020 – via ProQuest.
  2. Berger, Joseph (February 28, 1985). "Joseph Buloff, an Actor, Dies; Mainstay of Yiddish Theater". The New York Times. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
  3. Howe, Irving (March 31, 1985). "The Art of Joseph Buloff". The New York Times. p. H 4. ProQuest 111268500. Retrieved December 5, 2020 – via ProQuest.
  4. Bevya Rosten, "In Short: Nonfiction: They Opened in Vilna". New York Times (April 25, 1993): BR20.
  5. Rabinowitz, Solomon; Harrison, Rachel S. (2009). "Guide to the Papers of Joseph Buloff (1899–1985) and Luba Kadison (1906–2006)". YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  6. Schack, William (November 23, 1930). "Introducing Joseph Buloff of Russia". The New York Times. p. 112. ProQuest 98685965. Retrieved December 5, 2020 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Joseph Buloff". Internet Broadway Database. The Broadway League. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  8. Wisse, Ruth R. (June 24, 1991). "The Survivor's Voice – From the Old Marketplace by Joseph Buloff and translated by Joseph Singer". The New Republic. p. 40. ProQuest 212851966. Retrieved December 5, 2020 – via ProQuest.
  9. Yurevich, Liavon. "Joseph Buloff papers". New York Public Library. Retrieved November 25, 2017.
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