Adler, Luther

(1903-1984)

   Born in New York as Lutha Adler, son of the great Yiddish theatre actor Jacob Adler and Sarah Lev-itzka, Luther Adler was destined for the stage, where he succeeded as both an actor and a director. He began as a child in Yiddish theatre, but later joined the Provincetown Players. In 1923, Adler made his Broadway debut in Humoresque, followed by substantial parts in a series of moderately successful plays including The Monkey Talks (1925), Money Business (1926), We Americans (1926), a revival of The Music Master (1927), John (1927), Red Dust (1929), and Elmer Rice's Pulitzer Prize drama Street Scene (1929), in which he played the pivotal role of the idealistic Jewish law student, Sam Kaplan. Adler joined The Group Theatre* in 1935. Following its demise in 1940, Adler never regained his momentum as an actor. His final stage appearance, replacing Zero Mostel* as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964), brought Adler back to his Yiddish theatre roots.