Eli Mintz

Eli Mintz was an American actor whose career stretched from the Yiddish stage to Broadway, television and film. Born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary, he reached the United States in 1927 and worked as a waiter and clothing salesman before finding jobs in Yiddish theater in the 1930s, where he adopted the stage name Eli Mintz to set his work apart from his brother's. His breakthrough came in 1948, when Gertrude Berg cast him as Uncle David in her Broadway play Me and Molly, a part he repeated on the television series The Goldbergs from 1949 to 1956 and in the 1950 film adaptation. He continued to act on Broadway, in Jimmy Shine and Molly, and on television in shows including Naked City and Ben Casey. His films include The Proud Rebel (1958), Murder, Inc. (1960) and Stardust Memories (1980). He played Locksmith on All My Children, which earned him a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1980.