Shimon Finkel (1905-1999), laureate of the 1969 Israel Theatre Prize, was a theatre actor and director, and a founding member of Israel’s Habima National Theatre. Born in Belarus, Finkel studied acting in Berlin under the great director, Max Reinhardt. Whilst still in Berlin, he joined the Habima theatre company who were touring the city at the time, just on the cusp of his move to Palestine where he settled in Tel Aviv. The whole time he was working, Finkel was considered one of the nation’s greatest actors. Over the years, he has appeared in high profile, lead roles in countless stage plays including King Lear, Othello, Peer Gynt, and The Diary of Anne Frank. Plays he directed include Ghosts, In the Negev Plains, The Father, and many more. Highlights of Finkel’s film credits include: Pioneers of Palestine (aka Sabra, Aleksander Ford, 1932), Oded Hanoded (‘Oded the wanderer’) (Chaim Halachmi, 1932), El Dorado (Menahem Golan, 1963), The Winchell Affair (Avraham Heffner, 1979), and The Vulture (Yaky Yosha, 1981).
