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Showbiz Stills

Shivah Stars

by
Marc Tracy
December 08, 2011
Zero Mostel tosses Eli Wallach in the 1961 production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.(Leo Friedman)
Zero Mostel tosses Eli Wallach in the 1961 production of Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.(Leo Friedman)

Each week, we select the most interesting Jewish obituary. This week, it’s that of Leo Friedman, who died Friday at the age of 92. A Brooklyn boy with acting aspirations, he instead found himself as the go-to photographer for Broadway productions during American musical theater’s golden age in the 1950s and ’60s: My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Camelot, Cabaret, and most famously West Side Story—his photograph was iconic. (He also captured this nice shot of the legendary Richard Burton as Hamlet; slide show here). The guy knew Gypsy Rose Lee and took photographs of the original production of Gypsy: not bad.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.