Mordechai Ben-Zeev (1916-2010) was a stage, TV, and film actor. He trained as an actor at the Zvi Friedland Acting Studio and later, at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York City. Ben-Ze’ev has appeared on Israel’s Cameri and Habima National Theatre stages and is a founding member of the Haifa Theatre. He and fellow actor Zeev Berlinsky also co-founded the Sambation Theatre which was active between 1956-1960. Israeli children of the 1970s will no doubt remember Ben-Zeev as Dr. Guttmann from the TV programme, The Magic Door. One of his most memorable film roles was in Uri Zohar’s 1972 cult classic, Peeping Toms, where he played the father of Altmann Jr., café owner Altmann Sr.
Highlights of his other film credits include Out of Evil (Joseph Krumgold, 1950), Charlie and a Half (Boaz Davidson, 1974), Saint Cohen (Assi Dayan, 1975), Aunt Clara (Avraham Heffner, 1977), A Robber’s Robber is Blameless (‘gonev miganav patoor’) (Zeev Revach, 1977), The Fox in the Chicken Coop (Ephraim Kishon, 1978), Rockinghorse (Yaky Yosha, 1978), Mr. Leon (Zeev Revach, 1982), and The Lover (Michal Bat-Adam, 1986).
Ben-Zeev is the father of actor-singer-broadcaster Dori Ben-Ze’ev, lyricist Chamutal Ben Zeev, and actor Eran Ben-Zeev.
