MUNI, PAUL

MUNI, PAUL (Muni Weisenfreund; 1895–1967), U.S. actor. He started acting at the age of 12 in Chicago. maurice schwartz recognized his talent and persuaded him to join his new Yiddish-speaking Jewish Art Theater in 1918. Muni got his first real opportunity in an English role on Broadway in We Americans in 1926 and his success was immediate. He had a rich voice, good command of mime and facial expression, and a capacity for varied characterization. He played his first gangster in Four Walls, went to Hollywood and was acknowledged a star for his work in The Valiants (1929). Scarface established his reputation and I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang seemed to confirm him as a player of "tough" roles. However, he resisted typecasting and starred in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), which won him a Motion Picture Academy award, The Good Earth (1936), The Life of Emile Zola (1937), and Juarez (1939). These roles expressed his true stature as an interpreter of heroism in spirit rather than in violence. Muni continued to appear in Broadway plays, including Elmer Rice's Counselor-at-Law (1931–33), Maxwell Anderson's Key Largo (1939), and in Inherit the Wind (1955). He also acted in the London run of Death of a Salesman and played his last film role in The Last Angry Man.