Leon Liebgold

Who was Leon Liebgold?

Leon Liebgold was an actor in the Yiddish theatre.

He is best known for his roles in the Yiddish films The Dybbuk and Tevye.

Aside from working in his youth as a vaudeville performer and actor on stages in Poland, Liebgold gained fame by acting in several Yiddish language films including Yidl Mitn Fidl and The Dybbuk. After completing The Dybbuk, Liebgold and his wife, former co-star Lili Liliana, left Poland in 1937 for the United States escaping the Holocaust.

Liebgold served in the United States Army as a sergeant during World War II, and then performed as a stage actor in Yiddish theatres in America for decades, including the Folksbiene Theater. In the late 1970s, he once served as president of the Hebrew Actors' Union in Manhattan, New York.

Liebgold possessed both a resonant and fine melodic, cantorial-type voice which embellished both his speaking and singing on stage.

The name Liebgold literally translates from German or Yiddish into "love gold."

In 1993, Leon Liebgold died at age 83, surviving his wife by a few years. He is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery.