Lillian Lux

Background

Lillian Sylvia Lukashefsky was born in Brooklyn. Her father, a jeweler, had originally wanted to become an actor.

Career

By the age of 14, Lux was a chorus girl and involved in various Yiddish radio programs. While on the tour, the couple was married in Montevideo, Uruguay. Her most critically acclaimed performance was in Itzik Manger"s Songs of the Megillah (Yiddish: Megille Lider - the longest running Yiddish production to date in Israel, released on Broadway as Megilla of Itzik Manger).

lieutenant was also Lux"s only role on Broadway.

In 1962, the family moved to Israel. On the 100th anniversary of her husband"s birth in 1996, director Arnon Goldfinger directed a documentary film about the lives and careers of the Burstein family -The Komediant.

The move for the Burstein troupe to tackle serious theater (when they produced Megilla of Itzak Menger) was part orchestrated by Lux. She also ran a cosmetics company - Lily of Israel.

Although critically panned, she wrote a number of the songs and musicals her family appeared in, and has also appeared in Israeli and American films, and American television, including roles in The Body and Law and Order.

Her son, Mike Burstyn is an actor on Broadway, in Israeli theatre and the Yiddish theater. Her daughter, Susan, has not performed on stage since her teenage years. She also co-authored her husband"s autobiography - What a Life! in Yiddish (Geshpilt a Lebn, 1980), which was later translated into English.

This section is reserved for those who worked in New York Yiddish theater.

The section is maintained by the Alliance.

Connections

friendship:

Danny Kaye