{{Short description|American actor}} {{Infobox person | name = Leo Fuchs | image = Leo Fuchs 1949.JPG | imagesize = | caption = Fuchs preparing for a role in 1949 | yearsactive = | birth_name = | birth_date ={{birth date|1911|05|15}} | birth_place = | death_date ={{death date and age|1994|12|31|1911|05|15}} | death_place = | occupation = actor | spouse = }}

'''Leo Fuchs''' (May 15, 1911 &ndash; December 31, 1994) was a Polish-born American actor.<ref name="Independent-obit">Mendelovitch, Bernard (January 18, 1995). "[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituaries-leo-fuchs-1568528.html Leo Fuchs]" (obituary). ''The Independent''. independent.co.uk. Retrieved November 10, 2018.</ref> According to YIVO, he was born Avrum Leib Fuchs in Warsaw;<ref name=yivo>[http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33717&q=leo+fuchs Leo Fuchs papers], ''Guide to the YIVO Archives''. YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. yivoarchives.org. Retrieved October 31, 2018.</ref> according to Joel Schechter, he was born in Lwów, Galicia, then Poland, now called Lviv, Ukraine.<ref name="S80">[https://books.google.com/books?id=UNYdvZk2sMAC&pg=PA180 Schechter (2008), p. 180].</ref>

Fuchs performed in many Yiddish and English plays and movies throughout the mid-twentieth century, and was famed as a comic, a dancer, and a coupletist. He wrote much of his own material and toured widely.

==Early life== Fuchs was born into a Yiddish theatrical family: his father, Yakov Fuchs, was a character actor; his mother, Róża Fuchs (Ruzha Fuchs),<ref name=zalmen>Zalmen Zylbercweig, ''Leksikon fun Yidishn teater'', Book five, 4053</ref> was "a leading lady of the musical theatre who perished in the Holocaust of the 1940s,"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://savethemusic.com/bin/archives.cgi?q=bio&id=Leo+Fuchs |title=Save the Music bio: Leo Fuchs |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208070720/http://savethemusic.com/bin/archives.cgi?q=bio&id=Leo%2BFuchs |archivedate=December 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |accessdate=May 26, 2015 }}</ref> shot dead by Nazi Germans.<ref>Yonas Turkow, ''Farloshene shtern'', book 2, p 83–87</ref> He began acting (in Polish) when he was five years old, and was praised when he performed at the Warsaw cabaret ''{{interlanguage link|Qui Pro Quo (theatre)|lt=Qui Pro Quo|pl|Qui Pro Quo}}'' when he was 17.<ref name="S80"/>

==Career== His American debut was at the Second Avenue Theater in the Yiddish Theater District in ''Lucky Boy'' with Moishe Oysher in 1929.<ref name=caraid>[http://2ndave.nyu.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/13778/26.html;jsessionid=515671EC1E55A0C8AAF3FCDEE315FD30?sequence=1 Leo Fuchs: Born Laybl Springer in Lemberg] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810193404/http://2ndave.nyu.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/13778/26.html;jsessionid=515671EC1E55A0C8AAF3FCDEE315FD30?sequence=1 |date=2011-08-10 }}. Caraid O'Brien, 2nd Avenue site. Retrieved May 26, 2015.</ref> He moved to New York City in 1935.<ref name=yivo/> In his prime, he was known as "The Yiddish Fred Astaire",<ref>Lugowski, p. 63.</ref><ref>Friedman, p. 36.</ref> appearing both on Broadway and in film. In 1936, he married fellow actor Mirele Gruber and toured with her through Poland for a year. In 1937, he made two movies, the short ''I Want to Be a Boarder'' (in which he sang his famous song ''Trouble'') and ''I Want to Be a Mother'' with Yetta Zwerling. In 1940, he starred in ''Amerikaner Shadkhen'' (American Matchmaker).<ref>[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0297249/ Leo Fuchs bio at IMDb]. Retrieved May 26, 2015.</ref> He divorced in 1941<ref name=caraid/> and later married Rebecca Richman.

Starting in the 1960s, Fuchs performed in English-language plays and television,<ref name=yivo/> as well as Hollywood films, including ''The Story of Ruth'' (1960).<ref name="Independent-obit"/> Two of his best-known roles were in ''The Frisco Kid'' (1979), in which he played with Gene Wilder, and as Hymie Krichinsky in the film ''Avalon'' (1990).<ref name="S80"/><ref name="Independent-obit"/> He died in Los Angeles in 1994.<ref name=yivo/>

==Filmography== ===Movies=== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1937|| ''I Want to Be a Mother'' || Khaim Bok || |- |1940|| ''Americaner Shadchen'' || Nat Silver / Uncle Shya || |- |1941|| ''Mazel Tov Yidden'' || || |- |1950|| ''Monticello, Here We Come'' || || |- |1960|| ''The Story of Ruth'' || Sochin || |- |1972|| ''Awake and Sing'' || Jacob || PBS - TV |- |1979|| ''The Frisco Kid'' || Chief Rabbi || |- |1990|| ''Avalon'' || Hymie Krichinsky || (final film role) |}

===Television=== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1961|| ''The Tab Hunter Show'' || Pandro Tremaine || Episode "The Movie Set" (alternate title "A Star Is Born") |- |1962|| ''Wagon Train'' || Mr. Levy || Episode "The Levy-McGowan Story" |- |1963|| ''Mister Ed'' || Mr. Rasmussen || Episode "Patter of Little Hooves" |- |1970|| ''Green Acres'' || Uncle Fedor || Episode "Uncle Fedor" |- |1972 |''Sanford and Son'' |Herman Goldstein |Episode “The Shootout” |}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Friedman, Jonathan C. ''Rainbow Jews: Jewish and Gay Identity in the Performing Arts.'' Plymouth, UK: Lexington, 2007. * Lugowski, David. "'Pintele' Queer: The Performance of Jewish Male Heterosexuality in Yiddish American Cinema of the Great Depression." In Griffin, Sean. ''Hetero: Queering Representations of Straightness.'' Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009. 53–70. * Schechter, Joel. ''Messiahs of 1933: How American Yiddish Theatre Survived Adversity through Satire.'' Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2008.

==External links== *{{IMDb name|0297249}} *{{Find a Grave|7051761}} * There are several Leo Fuchs songs on NYU's Yiddish Theater archive: ** [https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/59727 Hopalong Knish] ** [https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/59719 You Gotta Cut Off His Head] ** [https://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/59722 The Yiddisher Chinaman]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuchs, Leo}} Category:1911 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Jewish American male actors Category:Jewish cabaret performers Category:Male actors from Lviv Category:Actors from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Category:Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Category:Jews from Austria-Hungary Category:Yiddish theatre Category:Polish cabaret performers Category:Jewish Polish male actors Category:Polish emigrants to the United States Category:Male actors from Greater Los Angeles Category:Yiddish theatre performers Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category:20th-century American male actors Category:American vaudeville performers Category:20th-century American comedians Category:20th-century American Jews Category:Jewish American comedians