Actress Geula Noni was only 17 years old when she conquered the world of Israeli cinema in the form of the returning Sabra in the film “I Like Mike”, and later played the object of love of Arik Einstein in “Saleh Shabati”. Throughout the years until her death in 2014, at the age of 72, as a result of cancer – she was considered one of the most beloved actresses, but also one who did not get to fulfill the potential that lay within her.
“Geula has not been appreciated in her life as an actress,” says actor Israel Treistman, a friend and partner in plays. “If you ask young actors today who Geula Noni is, they will not know. There is nothing left. And it’s a shame. She went to Borax movies because they offered her good money. She’s not guilty of going to play in such stereotypical roles. She had to make a living, but it was Prevent her from developing as an actress. “
“She was not appreciated enough,” says her relative, singer and actress Pazit Noni. “The roles she got less exhausted her full potential. I think she could have done a lot more diverse things and gotten much more meaningful roles. When you hear Geula Noni, borax films come to mind, Yehuda Barkan, Zeev Revach and a telenovela, but she does not appear to you. “As an actress. You remember her grace, beauty and dimples, but less remember her acting talent.”
“She began her career in Israeli cinema as an icon of Sabra, and over the years has undergone a process of orienteering that first happened in ‘Salah Shabati,'” says Prof. Rami Kimhi of the School of Communication at Ariel University. “So it went on to smaller and less important roles in Boaz Davidson’s films like ‘Charlie and a Half’ and ‘The Tsanani Family.’
Noni was born on June 9, 1942 to a mother who immigrated from Austria and a father who immigrated from Yemen. “Geula and I lived in a neighborhood in north Tel Aviv near the port,” says her childhood friend, singer Edna Goren. “Because she was a year and a half older than me, she would come every morning to call me to kindergarten. She was in the class of the big ones and I of the little ones. As children we would sit in my yard at home and sing songs in Russian. She would do plays in the garden, and we always sang together, it passed “In our blood. She was big naughty, graceful and so beautiful. She was courted a lot in her youth. She was a beloved girl and girl. She was already dominant then, and everyone fell in love with her and her talent.”
At the age of 15, Noni joined the Sambation Theater under the direction of Ze’ev Berlinsky and Mordechai Ben-Ze’ev. At the age of 17, she joined the Haifa Theater Club troupe, where she met the man who became her first husband – the mime artist Sami Molcho. Her big breakthrough occurred as mentioned when she was chosen to play in the film “I Like Mike” (1960) the saber character of Nili Damari, who captures the heart of Mike, the American tourist. “It was a film from the family comedy genre that opened the commercial cinema aimed at the general public,” says Prof. Kimchi. “Redemption embodies the ultimate Sabra. Her ethnicity is not emphasized in this film.”
The film was a huge success, screened at the Cannes Film Festival and made Noni a star. In 1961 she enlisted in the Nahal band and sang in her 15th program, “Holding on to Space”, alongside Popik Arnon and Gabi Eldor. Later she married Molcho and traveled with him to Europe, where he developed a glorious career. A few months later the couple divorced.
When Noni returned to Israel in 1962, she joined the Habima Theater and was cast in the lead role in the musical “Irma La Dos”, alongside Arik Einstein. “Originally Irma’s main role was mine, but when I went on a mission to Russia, Geula replaced me and bought her world with her talent,” says actress Dina Doron. “Her personality burst out through her acting. Redemption was a man’s dream, full of life, humor and kindness. She also accepted her difficult moments in a mature way and with a lot of intelligence and tolerance and also with a smile.”
Her appearance in “Irma La Dos” led her and Einstein to play a couple also on the big screen in Ephraim Kishon’s film, “Saleh Shabati”, in which she played Habuba, Saleh’s daughter (Haim Topol), while Einstein played Ziggy, the kibbutznik in love. in her. The film even performed the timeless duet “Me and You”. “Her acting talent is reflected in the film ‘Saleh Shabati’ in which she has a much bigger role than the other films, and she also sings in it,” notes Prof. Kimchi. “She manages to play the character of a puppet with great talent, even though it was not so natural for her because she did not grow up in these conditions. She grew up in a bourgeois house and not in a transit camp.”
“My first memory of redemption was on the set of ‘Saleh Shabtai’,” recalls Rafi Kishon, Ephraim’s son. “I was 6 years old, and from the bottom of my age I was already in love with this sweet beautiful girl with the charming smile and gorgeous gem. My father was fascinated by her talent and beauty. She was an amazing gem. “.
The film became a blockbuster, was the first Israeli film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and also the first to win a Golden Globe Award. In 1988, Noni closed the circle when she returned to play “Saleh Shabati”, the successful version of the musical at the Habima Theater, this time in the role of Etrog, Saleh’s wife (Zeev Revach) and Habuba’s mother (Dafna Dekel). “It was clear to my father that when the iconic film became a musical, Geula would participate in it,” says Kishon.
Geula Noni and Arik Einstein in Saleh Shabtai (Photo: Screenshot)Per pips
Throughout the 1960s, Noni starred in dramatic roles in films such as “Just Not on Saturday” (1964), “Midnight Blast” (1965) and “Is Tel Aviv Burning?” As well as in lead roles in the musical “My Jerusalem” (1969) and in the musical “My General Mother” (1970) alongside a friend, the actor Gabi Amrani. “Geula and I knew each other in our youth because we went around the same circles of theater actors,” says Amrani. “She was really a family to me. She took care of every peep that happened to me and I took care of every peep that happened to her, so the loss was very hard. Then we also played together in ‘Family Tsanani’ (1976), and she was great. “Their origin, according to the tapecast that stuck with them, and that’s how they chose both Geula and me for the film.”
In the years that followed, Noni continued to star in a variety of films that established her status as a lead actress, including “Charlie and a Half” (1974), “Not to Rise Again” (1979), “A Thousand Wives of Naftali a Good Sign” (1989), “Stolen Daddy 3” “(1991),” Twice Busquila “(1998) and” Sima Vaknin – Witch “(2003).
“Geula was a natural actress with a lot of sweetness, as if she was playing herself. Both in the movies and in the theater and also when she played the mother in the musical ‘Saleh Shabati’ – she really treated actors like her children,” says her friend, actress Nira Rabinovich. “In the days of her big stars she did not come with the attitude of ‘Look, I’m famous.’ And associative. “
“I first met Geula when I came to film her as the star of the play ‘My General Mother,'” recalls photographer Yoni Menachem, who shot stills for most local movies in those years. “The more serious acquaintance between us began to take shape in ‘Charlie and a Half’ and then in ‘The Tsanani Family’, and our relationship ran forward for many years. We met in friendship together: she was with me at home and I with her. She was like a family member. Something unusual for me She was funny on levels. She knew how to imitate, be funny, tell stories and mesmerize in her stories. She knew German perfectly, and she would even speak to my wife in German. “.
In 1971 Noni married the Austrian businessman Henry (Heini) Lider and moved to live with him in Vienna. There she performed at the Vienna Folk Theater and performed in other theaters in Germany and Switzerland. “I came to Vienna in 1985 following the play ‘Ghetto’ by Yehoshua Sobol, directed by Yosef Milo,” Treistman recalled. “Geula came to our premiere night and I met her there. On our first night in Vienna she invited all the actors to dinner at her house. Throughout my time in Vienna she acted like a mother: before the theater I would pass by her and she would make me a sandwich and cream with strawberries to have what To eat in the theater. “
Gabi Amrani (Photo: Meged Guzni)In 1994, Noni returned to Israel permanently and in the same year already starred on screen alongside Ze’ev Revach in the series “Papa”. Over the years, Noni has also acted in a variety of theaters. “Geula knew excellent Yiddish,” says Treistman, who played alongside her in “Ketuba” in Yiddishpiel. “She also improvised in Yiddish and told jokes in Yiddish, which she would write on paper. Her presence and personality on stage could not be ignored because she was very dominant. It’s because I believed less in love songs then, and it didn’t work out. “
Rafi Kishon (Photo: Yossi Aloni)The wheel turned
In the last decade of her life, Noni has mainly participated in plays by the Cameri Theater, including “Daddy’s Braid” (2004), “Johnny Gone” (2009), “Intel” (2009) and “Winter Under the Table” (2010). “I knew Geula when we played together in the play ‘Daddy’s Braid,'” says actor Itzik Cohen. “The connection with her was immediate. She was a warm, smart, peppery woman, with a love for the profession and partners. She very quickly became part of my family. She had something to say about everything. She loved to do pranks on stage. She was very non-technical and always She played from the heart. “
“Many treated her as graceful and beautiful, but few treated her with a text that was accurate, surprising and yet delicate,” notes Pazit Noni. “She conveyed to the audience something that created warmth and great empathy for her.”
In 2001, Noni was cast in the telenovela “Touching Happiness,” in which she played the character of Malka Avraham, who died during the series from a cancerous growth in her head. “Geula was an excellent actress,” says screenwriter and creator Gal Friedman. “I was sad when her character as a mother passed away and then she herself also died pretty much the same way. At first players in her league did not want to appear in the telenovela because it was new and did not know what it was, and she flowed with fun and joy. It testifies to her greatness.”
Noni’s last notable role on television was in the series “Blue Natalie” (2010) alongside Zvika Hadar and Dafna Dekel. “About that time she started having dizziness, and she was falling, so her friend encouraged her to go get tested, and then she found out she was sick,” Goren says. “Even in her ordeal she would not weep and mourn her bitter fate, but always maintained a high morale, but unfortunately her condition worsened. It was shocking for her when she fell ill.”
Edna Goren (Photo: Miri Tzachi)“I accompanied her a lot during her difficult time, and she always maintained a sense of humor,” says Pazit Noni. “In 2011, two weeks after she performed with me on stage at the launch of my album, she found out about brain cancer. She got it hard, but slowly she realized it was this. At first she was hopeful. During the difficult time I would come to her with “The guitar, we would sing and tell jokes and laugh to tears. She felt, even in her last days, satisfied with the things she managed to do. I did not hear her grumble. She was mostly disappointed that she could not get on stage because of the disease.”
“She was a very demanding personality both towards herself and towards others, but first and foremost the demands were towards herself,” says Amrani. “She did not want to be pitied towards the end, nor did she let anyone, not even those closest to her, know that her condition was not good. She would walk with her back straight and raised even when she could no longer walk.”
“When the disease caught her, she was quite optimistic at first,” notes Menachem. “When she was hospitalized in Ichilov, she was sure she was getting out of it and started doing physiotherapy exercises and asked me to come with a video camera and record the exercises she was doing so she would have a video of her survival because she was sure she would recover. But the wheel turned, and she realized it was not exactly so.”
On November 10, 2014, Noni passed away at Ichilov Hospital and was buried in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery in Tel Aviv, when thousands of actors, colleagues and fans came to pay their last respects. “I remember something special at her funeral,” Rabinovich concludes. “On the one hand it was a sad and tearful farewell, and on the other hand we all laughed because that’s what she wanted to stay in our hearts – her endless laughter and smile. It was redemption.”