Ida Kaminska was a Polish

Poles

thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...

 actress.

Early life

Born in Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, Russia (now Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

) she was the daughter of Yiddish stage actress Esther Rachel Kamińska (1870–1925) and actor, director and stage producer, Avram Izhak Kamiński (1867–1918). She reportedly married and divorced actor Marian Melman (1900–1978).

Early career

Ida Kaminska began a stage career at the age of five. Her first movie role was in 1912 in Mirele Efros, with her mother and her sister in other roles in the film. Her film career was brief, only appearing in four other movies in her entire career.

In 1965, she starred in the Czechoslovak movie The Shop on Main Street

The Shop on Main Street

The Shop on Main Street is a 1965 Czechoslovak film about the Aryanization programme during World War II in the Slovak State....

(Obchod na korze, directed by Ján Kadár

Ján Kadár

Ján Kadár was a Slovak film writer and director. As a filmmaker, he worked in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Canada. Most of his films were directed in tandem with Elmar Klos. The two became best known for their Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street...

 and Elmar Klos

Elmar Klos

Elmar Klos was a Czechoslovakian film director who collaborated for 17 years with Ján Kadár and with him won the 1965 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film with the film The Shop on Main Street.-References:...

), and she received a 1966 nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

Academy Award for Best Actress

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...

. Her last role was The Angel Levine

The Angel Levine

The Angel Levine is a 1970 U.S. film directed by Jan Kadar and based on a short story by Bernard Malamud. The film is about an impoverished New York City tailor who is unable to work due to health problems, which creates a financial strain since his wife is seriously ill...

(1970), directed by Ján Kadár

Ján Kadár

Ján Kadár was a Slovak film writer and director. As a filmmaker, he worked in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and Canada. Most of his films were directed in tandem with Elmar Klos. The two became best known for their Oscar-winning The Shop on Main Street...

.

Death

Following her death from cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease

Heart disease or cardiovascular disease are the class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels . While the term technically refers to any disease that affects the cardiovascular system , it is usually used to refer to those related to atherosclerosis...

 in 1980, aged 80, she was interred in the Yiddish theater section of the Mount Hebron Cemetery

Mount Hebron Cemetery

Mount Hebron is a Jewish cemetery located in the Flushing neighborhood of New York City. It was founded in 1903 as the Jewish section of Cedar Grove Cemetery. It is noted for its Yiddish theater section....

 in Flushing, New York.

External links