Yehuda Barkan

Yehuda Barkan was born in 1945 in Netanya

Yehuda Barkan was born in Netanya as Yehuda Ezekiel Berkowitz. His father was born in Poland and his mother in Czechoslovakia, and both came to the Land of Israel before the Second World War. He studied at the Bialik school and at ORT in Netanya.

In the IDF he served in the Combat Engineering Corps and in the Northern Command Band. After his release he joined the Dizengoff Command Band, which performed songs and sketches.

In 1967 he played Rafi in the film He Walked Through the Fields. In the 1970s he starred in comedies such as Lupo, Katz and Karasso, Charlie and a Half and Hagiga B'Snuker. Live prank calls on the radio show Hamim VeTaim later inspired his prank films.

In the 1980s he began to direct and produce hidden camera films, several with Yigal Shilon, and the Abba Ganuv comedy series. In 1994 he hosted the prank show Lo Dofkim Cheshbon on Channel 2. In the 2010s he acted in the series Yellow Peppers and Kipat Barzel.

In the early 2000s he became religious and moved with his family to the moshav Beit Gamliel. He received the Ophir Award for lifetime achievement in 2014. He died in 2020 after contracting the coronavirus.