FELDSHUH, TOVAH

FELDSHUH, TOVAH (1952– ), U.S. actress. Born Terri Sue Feldshuh in New York, she attended Scarsdale High School, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of Minnesota, studying drama under Uta Hagen. She switched to using her Hebrew name Tovah when a boyfriend in college complained that Terri Sue sounded too Southern, in marked contrast to generations of Jewish actors who changed their names. She made her stage debut in July 1971 playing small parts in Cyrano de Bergerac at the Guthrie in Minneapolis. Her Broadway debut followed in 1973, when she played two parts in the musical Cyrano. In 1974 Feldshuh appeared as Myriam in the comedy Dreyfus in Rehearsal on Broadway, in the title role in Yentl at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Playhouse, and in the musical revue Rodgers & Hart at the beginning of 1975. In October 1975, she reprised her role in Yentl on Broadway at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, which earned her a Tony nomination and a Theater World Award. Feldshuh's extensive and acclaimed film and television career includes appearances on the soap opera Ryan's Hope (1975) and in the made-for-TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977) as Katharine Hepburn, followed by her role as Czech freedom fighter Helena Slomova in the 1978 TV mini-series Holocaust. Years later, Feldshuh would   also narrate the film testimony at the U.S. Holocaust Museum. From 1991, she had a repeat role as defense attorney Danielle Melnick on the crime drama Law & Order. Her feature film roles include The Idolmaker (1980), Daniel (1983), Brewster's Millions (1985), Saying Kaddish (1991), Citizen Cohn (1992), A Walk On the Moon (1999), and Kissing Jessica Stein (2001). In 1989, Feldshuh returned to Broadway as Maria in Lend Me a Tenor at the Royale Theater, which earned her a third Tony nomination. Her fourth Tony nomination came in 2004 for her one-woman show about the life of Golda Meir, Golda's Balcony. Other awards and nominations include four Drama Desk awards, four Outer Critics Circle awards, the Obie, the Emmy, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award, Hadassah's Myrtle Wreath, and the Israel Peace Medal. Married to attorney Andrew Harris-Levy, Feldshuh has two children. Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright David Feldshuh is her brother. (Adam Wills (2nd ed.)