# Movies with a Jewish hero or tough-guy character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 5, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343 "2008-07-05T01:44:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/61 "2008-07-05T21:34:02Z")
[QUOTE=well he’s back] I know this is slightly off-topic - but how about the guy who played Joel Fleischman on Northern Exposure? Isn’t he now a tough guy on the TV series “Numbers”? or are he and his brother on the show not presented as Jewish? [/QUOTE] They’re _very_ Jewish. just not demonstrative. 😃 Their characters’ father, as played by Judd Hirsch, is one yarmulke short of a stereotype. Rob Morrow is more of a thinking-man’s G-Man, though. Some of the goyim supporting cast seems there to take up the fist-fighting and car-chasing slack, and as a result those characters are more two-dimensional and dull. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/62 "2008-07-05T21:37:32Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] _Superman Returns_. [/QUOTE] 😃 Oh, fine. Who’s the last Presbyterian movie tough-guy? Point is, movies seldom dwell on the religion of the main character. Or even mention it. (_Superman Returns_ didn’t either, for that matter.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/63 "2008-07-05T21:41:22Z")
By the way, in _Beerfest_: Charlie “Fink” Finklestein gets so angry at the arrogance of the German drinking team that he shows “The Eye of the Jew” and carries his team to victory in the boat-race rematch ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/64 "2008-07-05T22:00:29Z")
A couple from the 1980s, and a golden oldie: The spy thriller _The Soldier_, starring Ken Wahl, has a couple of IDF soldiers and a couple of Mossad agents. They are bit parts, not leading roles, but they are definitely butch. The TV mini-series _Reilly, Ace of Spies_, starring Sam Niell as the real-life WW1 spy. “Sidney Reilly” was a pseudonym. The guy was born Sigmund Rosenblum, and the movie does explicitly mention this. (Although Rosenblum’s parents were actually Muslims who converted to Judaism, but hey, he was raised kosher.) _The Young Lions_. Although it is most famous for Marlon Brando and Dean Martin, Montgomery Clift’s role as a Jewish GI is arguably the central character. He starts out wimpy, but in the end, Dean Martin is HIS sidekick! ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/65 "2008-07-05T23:04:58Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] 😃 Oh, fine. Who’s the last Presbyterian movie tough-guy? Point is, movies seldom dwell on the religion of the main character. Or even mention it. (_Superman Returns_ didn’t either, for that matter.) [/QUOTE] Dude, we all know that Judaism is way more than just a religion. There aren’t stereotypes about Presbyterian or Methodist people the way there are about Jews. Also, you can’t tell from someone’s name what denomination of Christian they are, usually, but if a character has a Jewish name, it’s pretty unambiguous that he’s supposed to be Jewish. And they tend to give the Jewish names to less than appealing characters. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/66 "2008-07-05T23:11:13Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] And they tend to give the Jewish names to less than appealing characters. [/QUOTE] How many counter-examples would it take to dispel this belief? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/67 "2008-07-05T23:12:06Z")
Enough so that the list of neurotic Jewish dorks doesn’t seem _so…damn…long_ in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/68 "2008-07-05T23:17:47Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Enough so that the list of neurotic Jewish dorks doesn’t seem _so…damn…long_ in comparison. [/QUOTE] Are we still discounting comedies? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/69 "2008-07-05T23:21:52Z")
No, not necessarily. If the character is a “cool” character, and not neurotic or a wimp, then sure a character in a comedy would count. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/70 "2008-07-05T23:24:20Z")
Well, Hebrew Hammer and Zohan are cool as cool can be, I figure. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/71 "2008-07-05T23:50:24Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Fair enough, I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that then. You bring up Paul Rudd, he’s a handsome, charming, likable actor who always plays likable, charming guys - NOT nebbishes, NOT nerds, but “cool” guys. True, he never plays tough guys, but he doesn’t play dorks either. [/QUOTE] Clearly you haven’t seen [all](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308878/) of his movies. You should watch that one, Rachel Weisz plays one of the most evil (non-murderous) female characters I’ve ever seen in it. Along the lines of **Numb3rs** , Agent Mulder of **The X-Files** is usually [thought to be 1/2 Jewish](http://www.keleka.net/deepbackground/xfiles/people/mulder.htm#Muldjew) (though non-practicing), and he kicked a fair number of asses. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/72 "2008-07-06T00:10:53Z")
Kirk Douglass played a few tough guy jews in his time such as in \*The Juggler \* and in _Cast a Giant Shadow_. Also the cast of _Escape from Sobibor_. Which includes Alan Arkin but especially Rutger Hauer as a Jewish Russian Army POW put in a concentration camp. I know it was made for TV but I mentioned it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Tabula\_Rasa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@Tabula\_Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabula_Rasa)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/73 "2008-07-06T00:51:32Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] No, not necessarily. If the character is a “cool” character, and not neurotic or a wimp, then sure a character in a comedy would count. [/QUOTE] Then Gene Wilder’s character in _The Frisco Kid_ has to count. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/74 "2008-07-06T00:58:13Z")
Okay, reaching here, but Fievel in _An American Tail_. He’s a Russian Jew, I believe. Not really a tough guy as such, but he is the protagonist. Moving out of movies, Ivanova in _Babylon 5_ is a Russian Jew as well. Her heritage is the focal point of one episode, in fact. And she’s about as badass as you can get. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/75 "2008-07-06T01:07:43Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Dude, we all know that Judaism is way more than just a religion. There aren’t stereotypes about Presbyterian or Methodist people the way there are about Jews. [/QUOTE] Having grown up Presbyterian, I can assure you that there are plenty of stereotypes about Presbyterians. They are seen as straitlaced, humorless, conservative in manners, rhythmless, and stuffy. They are all true. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/76 "2008-07-06T01:11:30Z")
[QUOTE=Bosstone] Moving out of movies, Ivanova in _Babylon 5_ is a Russian Jew as well. Her heritage is the focal point of one episode, in fact. And she’s about as badass as you can get. [/QUOTE] Yes but she is played by Claudia _Christian_ so it’s a push. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/77 "2008-07-06T01:44:38Z")
[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun] Having grown up Presbyterian, I can assure you that there are plenty of stereotypes about Presbyterians. They are seen as straitlaced, humorless, conservative in manners, rhythmless, and stuffy. They are all true. [/QUOTE] It’s a Scottish religion, so the stereotype’s generally that of Scots (“who keep the Sabbath and all else they can get their hands on”). Unfortunately the cool accent was taken off of the stereotype. Speaking of Gene Wilder westerns, was his character in _Blazing Saddles_ Jewish? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/78 "2008-07-06T01:55:55Z")
What about Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch as David and Julius Levinson in _Independence Day?_ ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/79 "2008-07-06T01:57:01Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Speaking of Gene Wilder westerns, was his character in _Blazing Saddles_ Jewish? [/QUOTE] His name is Jim in the movie, doesn’t state if he is Jewish. But the Indian Chief speaks Yiddish. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343/80 "2008-07-06T02:12:13Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Dude, we all know that Judaism is way more than just a religion. There aren’t stereotypes about Presbyterian or Methodist people the way there are about Jews. Also, you can’t tell from someone’s name what denomination of Christian they are, usually, but if a character has a Jewish name, it’s pretty unambiguous that he’s supposed to be Jewish. And they tend to give the Jewish names to less than appealing characters. [/QUOTE] Well, that’s not _entirely_ true. You can often make an accurate guess at the denomination of Christians with names like Sanchez, or Corleone, but otherwise, you make a point there regarding names being tied to a certain background. That said, if we can include professional wrestling (since we’ve already included Babylon 5), ISTR that Goldberg was a pretty badass guy 🆒 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-with-a-jewish-hero-or-tough-guy-character/455343.md?page=5)