Paul Muni was born Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund on Sept. 22, 1895 in an area that was a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but is now Lviv, Ukraine. His family moved to the U.S. in 1902. He gained a reputation in the Yiddish theatres and by 1926 he was acting on Broadway. He was offered a role by Fox Pictures, and nominated for an Oscar for his first role as in The Valiant, but decided he preferred the stage and returned to Broadway until 1932.
Two of his very best are Scarface and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Paul Muni played everybody -- Emile Zola, Benito Juarez, Louis Pasteur. We went on to win five Academy nominations, winning for Pasteur, which is probably not the best. He had contract disputes with Warner Bros., and they cut him in 1941. He made eight films in the next 10 years and retired after The Last Angry Man, which is a little schmaltzy.
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