Meier Tzelniker

Meier Tzelniker
Born(1894-01-01)1 January 1894
Hotin, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire
(now Khotyn, Ukraine)
Died8 October 1980(1980-10-08) (aged 86)
London, England
OccupationActor

Meier Tzelniker (1 January 1894 – 8 October 1980) was a Romanian-British actor. He appeared mainly in Yiddish theatre, but was sometimes a character actor in English-language plays and films.

Biography

Tzelniker was born and raised in the city of Hotin, located in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine), the son of a Romanian Jewish yeast manufacturer. He was a boy chorister in a synagogue when he got his first stage role in Yiddish theatre, and toured eastern Europe with a Yiddish theatre company. He studied at the Odesa Oblast Academic Drama Theater, and spent three years acting in Russia. He emigrated to London in 1927, co-founding the Yiddish National Theater Company.

Tzelniker was a leading figure in London's Yiddish theatre scene, and also appeared as a character actor in English-language productions. He had notable film roles in It Always Rains On Sunday (1947), A Night to Remember (1958), Expresso Bongo (1959), and The Killing of Sister George (1968). His West End credits included Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing! and The Big Knife.

Personal life

Tzelniker was married to actress Brana Freit, they had two children including Anna Tzelniker, also an actress.

Death

A long-time resident of Stepney in the East End of London, Tzelniker died there on 8 October 1980, aged 86.

Partial filmography

References

  1. 1 2 Grave listing at jewishgen.org
  2. ↑ "Meier Tzelniker". Jewish Lives Project. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  3. ↑ "Meier Tzelniker". Archived from the original on 3 February 2017.
  4. ↑ "Photographs of Yiddish production of The Merchant of Venice in 1946".
  5. ↑ "Meier Tzelniker - Movies and Filmography - AllMovie".
  6. 1 2 "Meir Tzelniker". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 12 June 2026.
  7. ↑ "Meier Tzelniker". Theatricalia.