Rita Karin
Acting
Biography
She was a Polish-born American actress best known for her role as Jackie Mason's mother on the 1989 TV series Chicken Soup. Also appeared at the beginning of Sophie's Choice as Yetta, Sophie's (Meryl Streep) landlady. Her voice can be heard singing children's songs from the camps in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
Born: October 24, 1919
Place of Birth: Wilno, Wilenskie, Poland [now Vilnius, Lithuania]
Known For
Sophie's Choice
Stingo, a young writer, moves to Brooklyn in 1947 to begin work on his first novel. As he becomes friendly with Sophie and her lover Nathan, he learns that she is a Holocaust survivor. Flashbacks reveal her harrowing story, from pre-war prosperity to Auschwitz. In the present, Sophie and Nathan's relationship increasingly unravels as Stingo grows closer to Sophie and Nathan's fragile mental state becomes ever more apparent.
ABC Afterschool Special
Dramatically presented situations, often controversial, of interest to children and teenagers. Several episodes were either in animated form or presented as documentaries. Topics included illiteracy, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy.
Enemies, a Love Story
A ghostwriter finds himself romantically involved with his current wife, a married woman and his long-vanished wife.
Kojak The Belarus File
Lt. Theo Kojak uncovers a Nazi conspiracy.
Kate & Allie
Kate & Allie is an American television situation comedy which ran from March 19, 1984, to May 22, 1989. Kate & Allie first aired on CBS as a midseason replacement series and only six episodes were initially commissioned, but the favorable response from critics and viewers alike easily convinced CBS to commit to a full season in the fall of 1984. The series was created by Sherry Coben.
He Said, She Said
Womanising, right-wing Dan Hanson and quiet, liberal Lorie Bryer work for the Baltimore Sun. Rivals for the job of new writer of a vacant column, the paper ends up instead printing their very different opinions alongside each other, which leads to a similarly combative local TV show. At the same time their initial indifference to each other looks like it may evolve into something more romantic.
Up the Sandbox
Bored with day-to-day life in New York City and neglected by her husband, a young wife and mother slips into increasingly outrageous fantasies: her mother breaking into the apartment, an explorer's demonstration of tribal fertility music at a party causing strange transformations, and joining terrorists to plant explosives in the Statue of Liberty.
The Big Fix
Private detective Moses Wine is hired by his former college girlfriend to investigate a political smear campaign and he sets out to find out who is responsible, with deadly results.
Matilda
A small-time talent agent discovers an amazing boxing kangaroo and figures to use it as his stepping-stone into the big time.
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
A Brooklyn mobster and his gang try to rub out their rivals.
Filmography
as Grandmother
as Mrs. Spepk
as Flo
as Mrs. Schreier
as Bea Fisher
as Yetta
as Mrs. Reuben
as Aunt Sonya
as Spectator
as Mrs. Grossbard (uncredited)
as Mrs. Reuben
as Mrs. Goldfarb