Shmuel Rodensky

Shmuel Rodensky was born in 1902 in Vilnius

Rodensky was born in 1902 in Smorgon, in the Russian Empire, to Gita and Reuven. During World War I he fled to Ukraine and was expelled during the Russian Revolution. He reached Hamburg on a forged Polish passport and immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1924.

In his first years in the country he worked in fields, swamp draining and construction. He studied drama at the Eretz Israel Theatre in Tel Aviv. Between 1928 and 1948 he acted with several companies, including Hakumkum and Hamatate.

He joined Habima Theatre and played many roles there, including Iago in Othello. With Shmuel Segal and Shmuel Atzmon he formed The Three Shmuliks, a trio that performed in Yiddish and Hebrew. From 1965 he played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, and from 1968 he played the role in Germany more than 1,400 times.

He also acted in films, among them Tevye and His Seven Daughters and The Odessa File, where he played Simon Wiesenthal. He was married to actress Niura Shein. He received the Israel Prize for theatre in 1984 and died in 1989 after a heart attack at Habima.