Rita Karin
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Biography
The daughter of victims of the Holocaust, Karin trained at the Moscow State Jewish Theater during WWII and began performing after the war with her husband, Norbert Horowitz, in a traveling Yiddish theater they created for Holocaust survivors. She immigrated to the US in 1949 and enjoyed a successful career in New York's Yiddish theater scene, later expanding to Broadway and off-Broadway in shows including "The Wall," "Yentl," "A Call on Kuprin," "Scuba Duba" and "The House of Blue Leaves." Karin also made intermittent feature film appearances beginning the 1970s; her most memorable roles include the boisterous landlady, Yetta Zimmerman, in "Sophie's Choice" (1983) and Mrs. Schreier in "Enemies: A Love Story" (1991). Her TV roles include a stint as Jackie Mason's mother on the ABC sitcom, "Chicken Soup." Karin also distinguished herself as a reader of the works of Sholom Aleichem, and performed them annually on the anniversary of the noted author's death.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
Life Events
1945
Left the Soviet Union for Germany after parents and other relatives were killed in the Holocaust and she finished her theater studies; served as narrator of the US Information Agency's first documentary about the liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps, "The Mills of Death"
1949
Immigrated to the United States; continuing acting career in New York's Yiddish theater scene
1960
Made her Broadway debut in "The Wall"
1971
Made film debut in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight"
1974
Played first notable TV role in the TV-movie, "Nicky's World"
1989
Played Bea Fisher on the short-lived ABC sitcom, "Chicken Soup", starring Jackie Mason and Lynn Redgrave
1993
Last film, "The Pickle"
1993
Last TV appearance, on an episode of the TV drama, "Tribeca"
Family
Companions
