Arik Lavie was one of Israel’s most beloved singers, stage, and film actors. Born in Germany, Lavie immigrated to then-Palestine at the age of nine. In the late 1940s, he was a member of the Carmel military troupe and later, in the fifties, sang and performed with Shimon Israeli and Zvi Borodo in the Aravah folk trio (le trio Aravah). Lavie then embarked on a highly successful solo singing career. Some of his greatest hits include: Noa, A Song isn’t just Words, It Happens (‘ze kore’), The Aunt from Hadera, The Red Rock (‘hasela haadom’), Locomotive No. 70414, Autumn Song, I’ll Sing you a Song (‘ani ashir lach shir’), and Why didn’t you Tell me? (‘lama lo amart li’).
In tandem with his musical career, Lavie continued to appear regularly in a host of plays, entertainment specials, and films. In 1963, he and his wife, actress Shoshana (‘Shoshik’) Shani-Lavie, came out with She & He (‘hu ve’hi’) – a hit entertainment programme written for the pair by Ephraim Kishon. Lavie and Shani would reunite with Kishon 11 years later to collaborate on Kishon’s latest play, Oh, Oh, Juliet (1974) which he wrote and directed, and which had tremendous success both in Israel and in Germany.
Highlights of his stage credits include: Rumpelstiltskin, The King and I, My Fair Lady, and The Wizard.
Highlights of his film credits include: Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer (Thorold Dickinson, 1955), Hole in the Moon (Uri Zohar, 1965), 999 Aliza: The Policeman (Menahem Golan, 1967), My Margo (Menahem Golan, 1969), Lupo! (Menahem Golan, 1978), Operation Thunderbolt (Menahem Golan, 1977), Million Dollar Madness (Naftali Alter, 1986), and Ha-Muvtal Batito (‘Batito on the dole’) (Ze’ev Revach, 1987).
