Leo Filler was an Israeli stage and film actor and director. Filler was born in Buenos Aires where he also studied acting, before immigrating to Israel in 1950. After establishing himself, creatively and professionally, he took over as Head of the Film Department at the Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts.
As an actor, Filler was a regular on both Ohel and Habima theatre stages. Highlights of his stage credits include Exit the King, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Blue Bird, Death of a Salesman, Peer Gynt, and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. During his time at Habima National Theatre, Filler directed the play, Billy Liar, starring Arik Einstein, and Shimon Yisraeli’s hit one-man show, Just a Weekday (‘stam yom shel chol’) that introduced Israelis to the art of chansons.
In film, highlights of Filler’s credits include They were Ten (Baruch Dienar, 1960), and The Prodigal Son (Yosef Shalhin, 1968). As a screenwriter, Filler was involved with writing the scripts for Menahem Golan’s El Dorado (1963), and Joel Silberg’s The Simhon Family (1965). In 1965, he co-wrote and co-directed the film, Girls’ Paradise Eilat with Nathan Axelrod, followed by Topele (1968) which he directed.
