Reizl Bozyk

infobox actress
birthdate=birth date|1914|5|13
birthplace=Poland
deathdate=death date and age|1993|9|30|1914|5|13
deathplace=city-state|New York City|New York
othername=Rose Bozyk
occupation=Stage, film actress

Reizl Bozyk (13 May 1914, Poland – 30 September 1993, New York, USA), also known at Rose Bozyk, was a noted actress of Yiddish theatre.

Her only film role was as Amy Irving's grandmother, "Bubbie," in "Crossing Delancey" (1988). She hired an old-fashioned Jewish matchmaker to help her granddaughter. Bozyk played this part so endearingly and with such comedic talent that she virtually stole the show.

Obituary in NY TimesBy RONALD SULLIVAN Published: October 2, 1993 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE6DE1631F931A35753C1A965958260]

Reizl Bozyk, an actress who received top billing in the Yiddish theater for more than 60 years, died on Thursday at St. Vincent's Hospital Medical Center. She was 79 and lived on the Lower East Side.

Mrs. Bozyk was an enduring star of the Yiddish stage here and earlier in Poland and Argentina, appearing in hundreds of productions, often as a comedian and later as the familar mother or mother-in-law character who often stole the show.

In 1988 she played her first English-language role, appearing as the grandmother in Joan Micklin Silver's film "Crossing Delancey." It was her biggest success outside the Yiddish theater, and it came when she was 74. For it, she drew from the dozens of similar roles she had played on the Yiddish stage to portray a kindly meddler trying to find a husband for her granddaughter (Amy Irving).

Mrs. Bozyk began acting in the Yiddish theater in Poland at the age of 5 or 6, performing first with her parents and then with Max Bozyk, the Yiddish actor whom she later married. He died in 1970 after a performance at Town Hall. Inseparable for Three Decades

The Bozyks fled from the Nazis in 1939, traveling first to Argentina and in 1941 to New York City. For three decades, they were inseparable on the Yiddish stage here, starring in one play or revue after another.

In an interview when "Crossing Delancey" opened, Mrs. Bozyk said that her 37 years with her husband had been like 74 because they'd spent their entire days and nights together.

"After the concert in Town Hall, right there, he said he didn't feel well," she said. "I took him in my arms and he died. I would like to go the way he did."

In 1989 she played her first stage role in English, appearing in the comedy "Social Security" at the Forum Theater in Metuchen, N.J. A year later she recreated her "Crossing Delancey" role on stage.

Mrs. Bozyk is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Armetta of Parlin, N.J.; four grandsons, and a great-grandson.

External links

*imdb name|0102536
*amg name|2:7871