Yossi Banai
Encyclopedia
Yossi Banai (November 5, 1932 – May 11, 2006) was an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i performer, singer, actor, and dramatist.

Biography

Banai was born in Jerusalem, and grew up in the neighborhood of the Mahane Yehuda market. He was one of the more prominent members of a family celebrated for producing several famous performers and musicians: his brothers Gavri
HaGashash HaHiver
HaGashash HaHiver |Tracker]]) were an Israeli comedy group. Often called HaGashashim , they are considered a classic of Israeli entertainment and the most influential comedy act in the history of Israel.The three members of the Gashash were:...

, Ya'akov and Haim are actors, his son Yuval
Yuval Banai
Yuval Banay is an Israeli musician, best known as the lead singer of the influential Israeli pop rock band Mashina.-Personal life:Yuval was born on June 9, 1962 in Tel-Aviv to Yossi and Ilana Banai...

 and nephews Ehud
Ehud Banai
-Early life:Banai, of Persian Jewish and Afghan Jewish descent, was born in Jerusalem to the actor Yaakov Banai, the eldest of the Banai siblings, and moved to Givataim at the age of four.-Music career:...

, Uri, Me'ir and Eviatar
Eviatar Banai
Eviatar Banai is an Israeli musician, singer and songwriter.-Biography:Banai was born in 1973 in Beer Sheva...

 are musicians and singers (some of whom occasionally act), and his niece Orna
Orna Banai
Orna Banai is an Israeli actress, comedian and entertainer.Banai was born in Beersheba, Israel. Her father was a local judge, and her mother was an education executive for the City of Beer Sheva. Many of her relatives are successful Israeli actors and singers. The next generation of the Banai...

 is an actress and comedian.

Banai was one of the first members of the IDF's famous troupe of performers, the Nahal troupe. He dropped out of school in sixth grade to join the theatre, studied acting under Fanny Lovitch and eventually joined the company of Habima theatre. Throughout his lifetime he collaborated with most of the active theatre companies in Israel performing in countless productions. He had a particularly close relationship with playwright Nissim Aloni, and starred in the premiers of many of Aloni's plays. Banai also inaugurated famous roles in the plays of Hanoch Levine and Yaakov Shabtai
Yaakov Shabtai
Yaakov Shabtai was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator.-Biography:Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandate Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia, but returned to Tel Aviv in 1967....

.

Banai himself wrote several cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 style revue
Revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from 1916 to 1932...

s, which he typically performed solo. He also wrote and directed comic sketches for the comedy trio Hagashash Hachiver, one of whose members was his brother, Gavri.

As a singer, he was famous for his personal presentation, smoky voice and penchant for performing French chanson
Chanson
A chanson is in general any lyric-driven French song, usually polyphonic and secular. A singer specialising in chansons is known as a "chanteur" or "chanteuse" ; a collection of chansons, especially from the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, is also known as a chansonnier.-Chanson de geste:The...

s. Some of his revues consisted of renditions of the songs of Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...

 and Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens
Georges Brassens , 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981), was a French singer-songwriter and poet.Brassens was born in Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier...

, which were often translated from the French for him by Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer
Naomi Shemer was a leading Israeli songwriter hailed as the "first lady of Israeli song and poetry."-Biography:Naomi Sapir was born on Kvutzat Kinneret, a kibbutz her parents had helped found, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. In the 1950s she served in the Israeli Defense Force's Nahal...

. Shemer also wrote several of her own songs for Banai.

He died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...

. He is survived by his wife and three sons (one of whom is Yuval Banai, lead singer of one of Israel's most influential pop rock bands Mashina
Mashina
Mashina are an Israeli pop rock band which was active from 1984 to 1995, and then again from 2003 to the present. The band is considered by many to be Israel's most important and influential rock band...

).

Awards

In 1998, Banai was awarded the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...

 for "stage arts – theatre", for his contribution to Israeli theatre.

In 2005, he was voted the 51st-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet
Ynet
Ynet is the most popular Israeli news and general content website. It is owned by the same conglomerate that operates Yediot Ahronot, the country's secondleading daily newspaper...

to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.

Filmography

  • Les Patriotes
    Les patriotes (film)
    The Patriots is a 1994 French film by director Éric Rochant starring Yvan Attal and Nancy Allen which focuses on certain activities carried out by the Mossad, as well as describing some of their operational tactics. It is a fictionalized account of two separate missions undertaken by the Israeli...

     (1994)
  • Haham Gamliel (1973)
  • Ha Glula (1972)
  • 999 Aliza Mizrahi (1967)
  • Ervinka
    Ervinka
    Ervinka is a 1967 Israeli film written and directed by Ephraim Kishon. The film, starring Chaim Topol is a comical tale of a con man who falls in love with a police officer.-Plot:...

     (1967)
  • Fortuna (1966)
  • Af Milah L'Morgenstein (1963)
  • Havura Shekazot (1963)


See also

  • List of Israel Prize recipients
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