{{Short description|Canadian actor, screenwriter and film director}} {{infobox person | image = Peter Frye (997009326793305171).jpg | name = Peter Frye | birth_name = Peter Friedman | birth_place= Quebec, Canada | birth_date = March 1, 1914 | death_place =Sutton, London, England, United Kingdom | death_date = June 2, 1991 (aged 77) | occupation = Actor, screenwriter, film director | spouse = Thelma Ruby (m 1970-1991) }}
'''Peter Frye''' (born as '''Peter Friedman''')<ref name="ALBA">{{Cite web |title=Frye, Peter: Biography |url=https://alba-valb.org/volunteers/peter-frye/ |access-date=18 April 2023 |website=The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives|date=10 December 2019 }}</ref> was a Canadian actor, screenwriter and film director.
==Biography== Frye, who was Jewish, was born on March 1, 1914, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Frye, who spoke fluent English, French, German, Hebrew and Spanish, fought in the Spanish Civil War from 1937 to 1938 as a member of the XV International Brigade and was wounded in action.<ref name="ALBA"/> He emigrated to Israel in the 1950s<ref name="Steir-Livny410">{{Cite journal |journal= Polish Political Science Yearbook|volume= 47|issue=2|date= 2018| issn =0208-7375|title=The Hero's Wife: The Depiction of Female Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema Prior to the Eichmann Trial and in its Aftermath|last=Steir-Livny |first=Liat |url=https://czasopisma.marszalek.com.pl/images/pliki/ppsy/47-2/ppsy2018218.pdf |access-date=20 April 2023 |page=410}}</ref> and became a drama professor at the University of Tel Aviv, and also worked as a stage director, actor, screenwriter and film director. He moved to the United Kingdom in the 1970s.<ref name="Steir-Livny410"/>
Frye co-wrote the screenplay for the 1954 Israel war film ''Hill 24 Doesn't Answer'' (''{{langx|he|גבעה 24 אינה עונה}}; {{transliteration|he|Giv'a 24 Einah Ona}}''),<ref name="BFI Hill 24">{{Cite web |title=Hill 24 Doesn't Answer (1955) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ac52ab5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116033004/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ac52ab5 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 16, 2021 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=British Film Institute}}</ref><ref name="AW">{{Cite news |last=A. W. |date=3 November 1955 |title=Israeli 'Hill 24 Doesn't Answer' at World |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1955/11/03/archives/israeli-hill-24-doesnt-answer-at-world.html |page = 37|access-date=17 April 2023}}</ref> the first feature film produced in Israel. He directed, and co-wrote the screenplay for, the 1961 Israeli drama film ''I Like Mike'' ({{langx|he|איי לייק מייק}}), which was entered for the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.<ref name="festival-cannes.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/i-like-mike/ |title=Festival de Cannes: I Like Mike |access-date= 19 April 2023|work=Cannes Festival}}</ref> He co-directed the 1963 Israeli documentary film ''The Hero's Wife'' (''Eshet Hagibor''), which depicted life on a kibbutz,<ref name="BFI Eshet">{{Cite web |title=Eshet Ha'Gibor (1963)|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b712ddb5cm |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=British Film Institute}}{{dead link|date=October 2023|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref><ref name="Steir-Livny">{{Cite journal |journal= Polish Political Science Yearbook|volume= 47|issue=2|date= 2018| issn =0208-7375|title=The Hero's Wife: The Depiction of Female Holocaust Survivors in Israeli Cinema Prior to the Eichmann Trial and in its Aftermath|last=Steir-Livny |first=Liat |url=https://czasopisma.marszalek.com.pl/images/pliki/ppsy/47-2/ppsy2018218.pdf |access-date=20 April 2023 |pages= 406–413|doi= 10.15804/ppsy2018218|doi-broken-date= 1 July 2025}}</ref><ref name="filmportal.de">{{Cite web |title=Peter Frye |url=https://www.filmportal.de/en/page/the-mission-of-filmportalde |access-date=20 April 2023 |website=filmportal.de}}</ref><ref name="Chicago">{{Cite web |url=https://chicagoreader.com/film/heros-wife/| date=26 October 1985 |title=Hero's Wife |access-date=20 April 2023 |website=Chicago Reader}}</ref> and directed the 1960 Israeli drama film ''Surprise Part'',<ref name="BFI Surprise">{{Cite web |title=Surprise Part (1960) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b775461b5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420202737/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b775461b5 |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 20, 2023 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=British Film Institute}}</ref> the 1966 documentary film ''Israel – The Holy Land''<ref name="BFI Holy Land">{{Cite web |title=Israel - The Holy Land (1966) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b72f7349c |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230420202137/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b72f7349c |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 20, 2023 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=British Film Institute}}</ref> and the 1969 Israel film ''My Margo''.<ref name="Steir-Livny"/>
His acting roles included Kasyan in the 1976 film ''The Sell Out'', Pontius Pilate in the 1979 film ''Jesus'', Rutherford in the 1984 film ''Nineteen Eighty Four''<ref name="Orwell">{{Cite web |date=23 May 2000|title=Nineteen Eighty-Four: Movie (1984)|work=orwell.ru |url=https://orwell.ru/a_life/movies/m84_01.htm |access-date=19 April 2023}}</ref> and Professor Maddox in the 1988 British TV film ''Mr Know-all''.<ref name="BFI Know-all">{{Cite web |title=Mr Know-all (1988) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b79738b25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125085713/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b79738b25 |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 25, 2020 |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=British Film Institute}}</ref> He also acted in the 1972 Jack Gold film ''The Gangster Show: The Irresistible Rise of Arturo Uri''.<ref name="Gangster">{{Cite web |title=The Gangster Show: The Irresistible Rise of Arturo Uri|work=Mubi |url=https://mubi.com/films/the-gangster-show-the-resistible-rise-of-arturo-ui |access-date=20 April 2023}}</ref>
He was married twice. His first wife was Romanian actress Batya Lancet with whom he had a daughter. His second marriage, from 1970 until his death, was to English actress Thelma Ruby. From 1980, they adapted and performed together in the play ''Momma Golda'' about the life of Golda Meir, Israel's first and only woman Prime Minister.<ref name="Miller">{{Cite news |last=Miller |first=Sarah |date=29 September 2022 |title=At 97, Thelma Ruby is both a marvel and a rarity |work=Jewish News |url=https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/at-97-thelma-ruby-is-both-a-marvel-and-a-rarity/# |access-date=5 October 2022}}</ref>
Frye died on June 2, 1991, in Sutton, London, England, UK.<ref name="ALBA"/>
==Filmography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1943|| ''Seeds of Freedom'' || || |- |1968|| ''Ha-Dybbuk'' || Sender || |- |1976|| ''The Sell Out'' || Kasyan || |- |1976|| ''The Passover Plot'' || Herod Antipas || |- |1979|| ''Jesus'' || Pontius Pilate || |- |1984|| ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' || Rutherford || |- |1985|| ''King David'' || Judean Elder || |}
==Publications== * Ruby-Frye, Thelma; Frye, Peter (1997). ''Double or Nothing: Two Lives in the Theatre. The Autobiography of Thelma Ruby and Peter Frye''. Janus Publishing Company, 336 pp. {{ISBN| 9781857562149}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{IMDb name|0296888}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frye, Peter}} Category:1914 births Category:1991 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian male actors Category:20th-century Canadian Jews Category:20th-century Canadian screenwriters Category:Canadian anti-fascists Category:Canadian male screenwriters Category:Canadian people of the Spanish Civil War Category:Canadian socialists Category:Film directors from Montreal Category:Male actors from Montreal Category:Jewish anti-fascists Category:Jewish Canadian male actors Category:Jewish Canadian screenwriters Category:Tel Aviv University people Category:Screenwriters from Montreal Category:International Brigades personnel Category:Israeli film directors Category:Israeli theatre directors