Miriam Laserson

Miriam Laserson (May 23, 1919 – July 2, 2021) was a Russian-born actress, poet and writer. In 1947 she was promoted in the United States as "Palestine's First Film Star".

Miriam Laserson
A white woman with dark curly hair, wearing a collared jacket
Miriam Laserson, from a 1947 newspaper
Born(1919-05-23)May 23, 1919
Moscow, Soviet Union
DiedJuly 2, 2021(2021-07-02) (aged 102)
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
Other namesMiriam Lazerson, Miriam Weiser Varon
OccupationActress
SpouseBenno Weiser Varon

Early life

Laserson was born in Moscow in 1919, the daughter of engineer Leon Laserson and physician Frieda Orkin Laserson.[1][2] Her family was Jewish. As a child she lived with her family in Riga and Vienna. She attended the Sorbonne in Paris, but skipped classes there to take acting lessons.[3]

Career

Laserson was visiting her parents in Bucharest when World War II began. They fled to Tel Aviv, where she lived from 1939 to 1947, and became a professional actress with the Habima Theatre,[4] and co-founder of the Ha Teatron Ha-Hadash. While in the United States to promote her first film,[5] she was called "Palestine's First Film Star".[6] She decided to stay in New York City. She worked on Wall Street while establishing a stage and television career.[3][7]

On screen, Laserson appeared in Meyer Levin's Beit Avi (My Father's House, 1947), Mr. Citizen (1955, television),[8] CBS Workshop (The Lady of the Dawn, 1960, television),[9] and The Imported Bridegroom (1990). She also had a writing credit for The Lady of the Dawn, her own adaptation of the Alejandro Casona play.[3][10]

Laserson and her husband moved to Israel in 1960; her husband later served as Israel's first ambassador to the Dominican Republic. She lived in New York again in 1966 and 1967, while her husband was at the United Nations, then moved to Paraguay, where they opened Israel's first embassy in Asuncion. The couple retired from foreign service and settled in Brookline, Massachusetts in 1972. She acted in Boston, and wrote three volumes of poetry.[11][12] She did translation work in German, Hebrew, French, Spanish and English.[13]

Personal life and death

Laserson was briefly romantically linked to Paul Lukas in 1955, after they worked together on Mr. Citizen.[14] She married ambassador Benno Weiser Varon in 1956. They had two children, Leonard and Daniela.[15] She was widowed when Varon died in 2010,[16] and she died in Brookline, Massachusetts on July 2, 2021, at the age of 102.[3]

References
  1. Freidenreich, Harriet Pass (1996). "Jewish Women Physicians in Central Europe in the Early Twentieth Century". Contemporary Jewry. 17 (1): 79–105. doi:10.1007/BF02965407. ISSN 0147-1694. JSTOR 23451104. S2CID 143753591.
  2. Freidenreich, Harriet Pass (2002-06-21). Female, Jewish, and Educated: The Lives of Central European University Women. Indiana University Press. pp. 234, note 55. ISBN 978-0-253-10927-9.
  3. "Actress on Four Continents, Poet, Linguist". The Boston Globe. 2021-07-04. pp. C21. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Varon, Benno Weiser (March 9, 1995). "Exploring Love and Kabbalah: The Dybbuk brings its mysticism to New England". The Jewish Advocate: 13 – via ProQuest.
  5. "Bouquet". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1948-03-17. p. 38. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Adams, Marjory (1947-12-24). "Palestine's First Film Star Appreciates Boston's Snow". The Boston Globe. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-12-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Jemail, Jimmy (1947-07-13). "The Inquiring Fotographer". Daily News. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "'Gunsmoke' vs. Gobel". Daily News. 1955-05-30. p. 296. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Music and Drama". Chicago Tribune. 1960-03-06. p. 290. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Today's Television Programs". Chattanooga Daily Times. 1960-03-06. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Laserson, Miriam (1975). Thoughtprints. Eked.
  12. Varon, Miriam Laserson (2012). Late harvest : a collection of later year poems. Leicester: Matador. ISBN 978-1-78088-040-2. OCLC 824171990.
  13. Tributsch, Helmut (1982). How life learned to live : adaptation in nature. Miriam Varon. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-20045-7. OCLC 8494185.
  14. Winchell, Walter (1955-06-16). "Man About Town". The Charlotte Observer. p. 45. Retrieved 2021-12-11 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Varon, Benno (1992). Professions of a Lucky Jew. Associated University Presses. ISBN 978-0-8453-4837-6.
  16. Marquard, Bryan (2010-10-08). "Benno Weiser Varon; Writer, Diplomat Survived World Wars". The Boston Globe. pp. B13. Retrieved 2021-12-12 – via Newspapers.com.
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