Molly Picon

Picon worked between 1898 and 1992 across stage actor, film actor, television actor, actor and musician and 1 further recorded occupations. This article rests on 18 catalogued compositions, 3 published texts, 1 issued recordings, 1 digitised documents and 11 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Molly Picon • Birth Name — Mollie Picon • Born — 28 February 1898 • Birthplace — Manhattan, New York, New York • Died — 5 April 1992 • Place of death — Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US • Resting Place — Mount Hebron Cemetery, New York City • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 1904–1984

Picon was born in New York City to Jewish emigrants Louis (Opiekun) Picon and Clara (Ostrovsky) Picon. Her father was from Warsaw and her mother from near Kyiv. The family began living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when she was three years old.

Picon became a star of the Yiddish Theatre District, performing in plays in the District for seven years. Picon was so popular in the 1920s, many shows had her adopted name, Molly, in their title. In 1931, she opened the Molly Picon Theatre. • Illustration — Jacob Kalich (second from left), Picon's husband, in the comedy play Mezrach und Maarev, 1921 • Illustration — Picon in a 1929 Vitaphone Varieties short film Picon appeared in many films, beginning with silent movies. Her early films were made in Europe; among the first, and earliest to survive, was the Yiddish language East and West, a film adaptation of the 1921 play Mezrach und Maarev produced in Vienna in 1923. The film depicts a clash of New and Old World Jewish cultures. She plays a US-born daughter who travels with her father back to Galicia in East Central Europe. In 1934, Picon had a musical comedy radio show, The Molly Picon Program, broadcast on WMCA in New York City. In 1938, she starred another radio program on WMCA, I Give You My Life. That program "combined music and dramatic episodes that purported to be the story of her life." Two years later, she starred in Molly Picon's Parade, a variety show on WMCA. Picon made her English language debut on stage in 1940. On Broadway, she starred in the Jerry Herman musical Milk and Honey in 1961. In 1966, she dropped out of the disastrous Chu Chem during previews in Philadelphia; the show closed before it reached Broadway. • Illustration — Picon and Jim Nabors in Gomer Pyle USMC (1968) Picon had a bit part in the 1948 film The Naked City as the woman running a news-stand and soda fountain towards the climax of the film. Her first major Anglophonic role in the movies was in the film version of Come Blow Your Horn (1963), with Frank Sinatra, a role which earned her a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Comedy or Musical. One of her best-known film roles was as Yente the Matchmaker in the 1971 film adaptation of the Broadway hit Fiddler on the Roof. Picon appeared as Molly Gordon in an episode of CBS's Gomer Pyle, USMC and had a recurring role as Mrs. Bronson in the NBC police comedy Car 54, Where Are You?. In the comedy For Pete's Sake (1974), she appeared as an elderly madam ("Mrs. Cherry") who arranges a disastrous stint for Barbra Streisand on a job as a call girl. She later had television roles as Mother Mishkin in the third episode of Vega$, a role on the soap opera Somerset and appeared in a few episodes of The Facts of Life as Natalie's grandmother. Picon appeared on the ABC program Young People's Specials in an episode entitled "Grandma Didn't Wave Back". In 1983, Picon's turn on the program would earn her a nomination for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming. Her final film roles were as Roger Moore's mother, Mrs. Goldfarb, in the screwball comedies Cannonball Run and Cannonball Run II, in 1981 and 1984, respectively.

Picon was married to actor and playwright Yankel (Jacob) Kalich from 1919 until his death from cancer in 1975. They had a stillborn child, "Baby Girl Kalich", 13 August 1920. Picon succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease on 5 April 1992 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She was 94.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1922 — Look After Your Daughters • 1923 — East and West — Mollie • 1936 — Yiddle with His Fiddle — Itke aka Judel • 1937 — Let's Make a Night of It — Specialty Act — Uncredited • 1938 — Mamele — Khavtshi Samet aka Mamele • 1948 — The Naked City — Soda-Selling Shopkeeper — Uncredited • 1959 — Startime — Sarah Rabinowitz — Episode: "The Jazz Singer", a TV production starring Jerry Lewis • 1961-1963 — Car 54, Where Are You? — Mrs. Rachel Bronson — 3 episodes • 1968 — Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. — Molly Gordon — 1 episode • 1963 — Come Blow Your Horn — Mrs. Sophie Baker • 1971 — Fiddler on the Roof — Yente • 1974 — For Pete's Sake — Mrs. Cherry • 1975 — Murder on Flight 502 — Ida Goldman • 1979 — That's Life • 1981 — The Cannonball Run — Mom Goldfarb • 1984 — Cannonball Run II

Molly Picon was born on 28 February 1898 in New York City. Picon held the nationality of United States. Married to: Jacob Kalich. Picon worked as stage actor, film actor, television actor and actor, and the authority record catalogues a further 2 occupations under the same name, among them musician and lyricist. Picon was active from 1904. Picon worked in Yiddish. Picon died on 5 April 1992 in Lancaster. Picon is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery.