Menasha Skulnik was a Jewish American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 actor, primarily known for his roles in Yiddish theater in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Skulnik was also popular on radio, playing Uncle David on The Goldbergs

The Goldbergs

The Goldbergs is a comedy-drama broadcast from 1929 to 1946 on American radio, and from 1949 to 1956 on American television. It was adapted into a 1948 play, Me and Molly, and a 1973 Broadway musical, Molly.-Radio:...

for 19 years. He made many television and Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 appearances as well, including successful runs in Clifford Odets

Clifford Odets

Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...

's The Flowering Peach and Harold Rome's The Zulu and the Zayda

The Zulu and the Zayda

The Zulu and the Zayda is a play-with-music by Howard Da Silva and Felix Leon, with music and lyrics by Harold Rome , and directed by Dore Schary. It was based on a story by Dan Jacobson...

.

Born in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Skulnik reportedly ran away at the age of 10 to join a circus. In 1913, he joined a Yiddish stock company in Philadelphia and began getting comic parts. His diminutive stature (5'4"), high nasal voice, mannerisms and appearance, made him a natural for comedy.

Skulnik knew exactly what he was in comedy: "I play a schlemiel

Peter Schlemiel

Peter Schlemihl is the title character of an 1814 novel, Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte , written in German by exiled French aristocrat Adelbert von Chamisso. In the story, Schlemihl sells his shadow to the Devil for a bottomless wallet, only to find that a man without a shadow is shunned...

, a dope. Sometimes they call me the Yiddish Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin

Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...

, and I don't like this. Chaplin's dope is a little bit of a wiseguy. He's got a little larceny in him. I am a pure schlemiel, with no string attached." http://www.jteditor.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1123 Skulnik was dubbed the "East Side's Chaplin" by the New York Evening Journal in 1935. http://www.jteditor.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=1123

He collapsed on stage in New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

 during a dress rehearsal of a show he was bringing to Broadway, and died several weeks later on June 4, 1970 in New York City.http://www.jewishtucson.org/content_display.html?ArticleID=188367 He is buried 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....

.

Stage

• In a Tenement House (1932)
• God Man and Devil (1935)
• The Perfect Fishel (1935)
• Laugh Night (1936)
• Schlemihl (1936)
• Yossel and His Wives (1937)
• The Little Tailor (1938)
• The Wise Fool (1938)
• Mazel Tov, Rabbi (1938)
• Three Men and a Girl (1939)
• The Fifth Season (1953)
• The Flowering Peach (1954)
• The 49th Cousin
  The 49th Cousin
  The 49th Cousin is a play by Florence Lowe and Caroline Francke. The work premiered on Broadway at the Ambassador Theatre on October 26, 1960 and closed after 102 performances on January 21, 1961...
  
  (1960)
• The Zulu and the Zayda
  The Zulu and the Zayda
  The Zulu and the Zayda is a play-with-music by Howard Da Silva and Felix Leon, with music and lyrics by Harold Rome , and directed by Dore Schary. It was based on a story by Dan Jacobson...
  
  (1965)
• Chu Chem
  Chu Chem
  Chu Chem is a musical with a book by Ted Allen, lyrics by Jim Haines and Jack Wohl, and music by Mitch Leigh.Allen's inspiration was a trip to Kaifeng Fu , China, the site of a major Jewish migration in the 10th century...
  
  (1966)

External links

• Internet Broadway Database

• Skulnik's Grandson reflects...