Eli Danker

Eli Danker was born in 1948 in Israel

Eli Danker was born in Israel on 12 October 1948. He began playing the accordion at age 10 and studied music in a high school belonging to the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

He served as an officer in the Paratroopers Brigade. After his release he studied acting at Beit Zvi, then theater at the Hebrew University, and later went to New York to study acting. He also studied stage acrobatics with Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

After the Yom Kippur War he acted for 3 seasons at the Jerusalem Khan Theater. In 1976 he appeared on the comedy show Nikui Rosh, and from the early 1980s he acted at Habima, the Cameri and other theaters.

At the end of 1984 he moved to the United States. He was often cast as a terrorist or a Mossad agent, with roles in films such as The Little Drummer Girl and in series such as MacGyver, The West Wing and Alias.

In 2001 he acted in Israel's first telenovela, Touching Happiness. He has kept working in Israeli film and theater. He has 4 children, including the actor and singer Ran Danker, and lives in Hod HaSharon with his wife Michal.