20 Famous Jewish Actors Who Have Graced the Silver Screen

20 Famous Jewish Actors Who Have Graced the Silver Screen

Jewish actors have made significant contributions to the film industry since the early days of Hollywood. They have starred in some of the most iconic movies of all time, and their contributions to cinema are immeasurable. Jewish actors are known for their talent, versatility, and range. They have played a wide variety of roles, from comedic to dramatic, and have consistently delivered memorable performances.

In this article, we feature 20 Famous Jewish Actors Who Have Graced the Silver Screen. From Barbra Streisand’s award-winning performances to Woody Allen’s groundbreaking comedies, these actors have helped to shape the landscape of cinema. Let’s delve into the article. 

1. Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving multiple accolades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Portman gained international recognition for starring as Padmé Amidala in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). From 1999 to 2003, Portman attended Harvard University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She reduced her number of acting roles, but continued to act in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (2002, 2005) and in The Public Theater’s 2001 revival of Anton Chekhov’s play The Seagull.

In 2004, Portman was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won a Golden Globe Award for playing a mysterious stripper in the romantic drama Closer. Portman’s career further advanced with her starring roles as Evey Hammond in V for Vendetta (2005), Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), and a troubled ballerina in the psychological horror film Black Swan (2010), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

2. Adam Sandler

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Adam Sandler is primarily a comedic leading actor in film and television, his accolades include nominations for three Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2023, Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Sandler’s comedic roles include Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996), The Waterboy (1998), The Wedding Singer (1998), Big Daddy (1999), Mr. Deeds (2002), 50 First Dates (2004), The Longest Yard (2005), Click (2006), Grown Ups (2010), Just Go with It (2011), Grown Ups 2 (2013), Blended (2014), Murder Mystery (2019) and Hubie Halloween (2020). Several Sandler comedies, such as Jack and Jill (2011), have been panned, resulting in nine Golden Raspberry Awards and 37 Raspberry Award nominations, more than any actor except Sylvester Stallone.

3. Dustin Hoffman

Dustin Hoffman is regarded as one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards. 

Hoffman has received numerous honours, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1997, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 2012. Actor Robert De Niro has described him as an actor with the everyman’s face who embodied the heartbreakingly human.

4. Scarlett Johansson

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Scarlett Johansson was the world’s highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. Time named her one of the 100 most influential actresses in the world in 2021. Johansson’s films have grossed over $14.3 billion worldwide, making her the highest-grossing box office star of all time.

Johansson made her film debut in the fantasy comedy North (1994) and gained early recognition for her roles in Manny & Lo (1996), The Horse Whisperer (1998), and Ghost World (2001). Her shift to adult roles came in 2003 with Lost in Translation, and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for this performance. Labelled a sex symbol, Johansson has been referred to as one of the world’s most attractive women by various media outlets. She is a prominent brand endorser and supports several charitable causes.

5. Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand starred in the critically acclaimed Funny Girl (1968), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Additional fame followed with films including the extravagant musical Hello, Dolly! (1969), the screwball comedy What’s Up, Doc? (1972), and the romantic drama The Way We Were (1973). 

Streisand won a second Academy Award for writing the love theme from A Star Is Born (1976), the first woman to be honoured as a composer. With the release of Yentl (1983), Streisand became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major studio film. The film won an Oscar for Best Original Score and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Musical. Streisand also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Director, becoming the first and for 37 years, the only woman to win that award. 

6. Daniel Day-Lewis

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Daniel Day-Lewis is often described as one of the preeminent actors in the history of cinema, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, including three Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. In 2014, Day-Lewis received a knighthood for services to drama.

Day-Lewis shifted between theatre and film for most of the early 1980s, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and playing Romeo Montague in Romeo and Juliet and Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Playing the title role in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London in 1989, he left the stage midway through a performance after breaking down during a scene where the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears before him, this was his last appearance on the stage. He earned Academy Awards for his roles in My Left Foot (1989), There Will Be Blood (2007), and Lincoln (2012). His other Oscar-nominated roles were in In the Name of the Father (1993), Gangs of New York (2002), and Phantom Thread (2017). 

7. Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal made his film debut in 1991 with a minor role in the comedy-drama City Slickers. In 1993, he appeared in A Dangerous Woman, a motion picture adaptation directed by Gyllenhaal’s father Stephen Gyllenhaal and co-written by his mother Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal that was based on the novel of the same name by Mary McGarry Morris. 

Gyllenhaal played the true crime author Robert Graysmith in the 2007 mystery film Zodiac. Directed by David Fincher, the film explores the story of the serial killer Zodiac who stalked the Bay Area during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 2010, Gyllenhaal starred alongside Anne Hathaway in the romantic comedy Love & Other Drugs. He portrayed Colter Stevens, a U.S. Army Aviation captain, in the 2011 sci-fi time-travel thriller Source Code. In 2013, Gyllenhaal starred in the drama movie Prisoners together with Hugh Jackman; the film received both critical and commercial success.

8. Gal Gadot

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Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress and model. She was crowned Miss Israel 2004 and represented her country at the Miss Universe 2004 pageant. Her first international film performance was as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious (2009), a part she reprised in several sequels. 

Gadot achieved global stardom for her portrayal of Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe films, including Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Wonder Woman (2017). She has since starred in the Netflix action-comedy film Red Notice (2021) and the mystery film Death on the Nile (2022). Gadot was included on the list of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2018 and has placed twice in annual rankings of the world’s highest-paid actresses.

9. Winona Ryder

Winona Ryder rose to prominence for her more diverse performances in various genres in the 1990s. She has received many accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for a Grammy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Academy Awards. She rose to prominence with major roles in Heathers (1989), Mermaids (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). She garnered critical acclaim and two consecutive Academy Award nominations for her portrayals of socialite May Welland in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993) and Jo March in Little Women (1994). She won a Golden Globe for The Age of Innocence. Since 2016, she has starred as Joyce Byers in the Netflix science fiction horror series Stranger Things, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination, and in 2020, she starred in the HBO drama miniseries The Plot Against America.

10. Sacha Baron Cohen

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Sacha Baron Cohen is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haffaz Aladeen. His characters interact with unsuspecting subjects who do not realise they have been set up. 

At the 2012 British Comedy Awards, Baron Cohen received the Outstanding Achievement Award and accepted the award in-character as Ali G. In 2013, he received the BAFTA Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy. In 2018, The Times named him among the 30 best living comedians.

11. Seth Rogen

Seth Rogen’s first movie appearance was a minor role in Donnie Darko (2001), and he had a supporting part in Apatow’s directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), which he co-produced. He had leading roles in Apatow’s comedies Knocked Up (2007) and Funny People (2009). Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, co-wrote the films Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), The Green Hornet (2011) and This Is the End (2013) and directed This Is the End and The Interview (2014), all of which starred Rogen. 

He had further comedic roles in Neighbors (2014), its 2016 sequel, The Disaster Artist (2017), and Long Shot (2019). He has played dramatic roles in 50/50 (2011), Take This Waltz (2011), Steve Jobs (2015) and The Fabelmans (2022). He also starred in the FX on Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy (2022) for which he received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations.

12. Mila Kunis

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Mila Kunis began playing Jackie Burkhart on the Fox television series That ’70s Show at the age of 14. Since 1999, she has voiced Meg Griffin on the Fox animated series Family Guy. Kunis’s breakout film role was in the 2008 romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. She gained further critical acclaim and accolades for her performance in the psychological thriller Black Swan (2010), receiving nominations for the SAG Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. 

Her other major films include the action films Max Payne (2008) and The Book of Eli (2010), the romantic comedy Friends with Benefits (2011), the fantasy film Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) as the Wicked Witch of the West, and the comedies Ted (2012), Bad Moms (2016) and its sequel, A Bad Moms Christmas (2017).

13. Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow  is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films such as Seven (1995), Emma (1996), Sliding Doors (1998), and A Perfect Murder (1998). 

She garnered wider acclaim for her performance as Viola de Lesseps in the historical romance Shakespeare in Love (1998) which won her several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Actress. This was followed by roles in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Shallow Hal (2001), and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004).

14. Leonard Nimoy

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Leonard Nimoy famed for playing Spock in the Star Trek franchise for almost 50 years. This includes originating Spock in the original Star Trek series in 1966, then Star Trek: The Animated Series, the first six Star Trek films, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. 

Nimoy also directed films, including Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and appeared in several films, and television shows, and voice acted in several video games. Outside of acting, Nimoy was a movie director, photographer, author, singer, and songwriter.

15. Goldie Hawn

Goldie Hawn rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Cactus Flower (1969).

Hawn appeared in such films as There’s a Girl in My Soup (1970), Butterflies Are Free (1972), The Sugarland Express (1974), Shampoo (1975), Foul Play (1978), Seems Like Old Times (1980), and Private Benjamin (1980), for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the title role. 

16. Ben Stiller

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Ben Stiller was a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known as the Frat Pack. His films have grossed more than $2.6 billion in Canada and the United States, with an average of $79 million per film.[2] Throughout his career, he has received various awards and honors, including an Emmy Award, multiple MTV Movie Awards, a Britannia Award and a Teen Choice Award.

He starred in a string of successful studio comedies including There’s Something About Mary (1998), Along Came Polly (2004), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004), Starsky & Hutch (2004), and Tower Heist (2011). Stiller is also widely known for multiple franchise films such as the Meet the Parents films (2000–2010), the Madagascar franchise (2005–2012), and the Night at the Museum trilogy (2006–2014). His performances in independent films include Flirting with Disaster (1996); The Royal Tenenbaums (2001); and the Noah Baumbach films Greenberg (2010), While We’re Young (2014), and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017).

17. Jason Segel

Jason Segel is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014. He began his career with director and producer Judd Apatow on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) and Undeclared (2001–2002) before gaining prominence for his leading roles in various successful comedy films in which he has starred, written, and produced.

In 2023, he began starring as a therapist in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, which he also co-created alongside Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein. For his performance, he earned a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series nomination.

18. Jonah Hill

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Jonah Hill is known for his comedic roles in films including Superbad (2007), Knocked Up (2007), Get Him to the Greek (2010), 21 Jump Street (2012), This Is the End (2013), and 22 Jump Street (2014). For his performances in Moneyball (2011) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Hill ranked 28th on Forbes’s list of highest-paid actors from June 2014 to June 2015, at $16 million. In 2018, he starred in the Netflix miniseries Maniac and made his directorial debut with the film Mid90s, for which he also wrote the screenplay.

19. Rachel Weisz

Rachel Weisz began acting in stage and television productions in the early 1990s and made her film debut in Death Machine (1994). She won a Critics’ Circle Theatre Award for her role in the 1994 revival of Noël Coward’s play Design for Living, and went on to appear in the 1999 Donmar Warehouse production of Tennessee Williams’ drama Suddenly, Last Summer. 

Her film breakthrough came with her starring role as Evelyn Carnahan in the Hollywood action movies The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001). Weisz went on to star in several films of the 2000s, including Enemy at the Gates (2001), About a Boy (2002), Runaway Jury (2003), Constantine (2005), The Fountain (2006), The Lovely Bones (2009) and The Whistleblower (2010). For her performance as an activist in the 2005 thriller The Constant Gardener, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and for playing Blanche DuBois in a 2009 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. 

20. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish family, Gordon-Levitt began his acting career as a child, appearing in the films A River Runs Through It (1992), Holy Matrimony (1994), and Angels in the Outfield (1994), which earned him a Young Artist Award and a Saturn Award nomination. He played the role of Tommy Solomon in the TV series 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996–2001). He had a supporting role in 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) and voiced Jim Hawkins in the Disney animated Treasure Planet (2002) before taking a break from acting to study at Columbia University, but dropped out in 2004 to resume his acting career.

Since returning to acting, Gordon-Levitt has starred in Manic (2001), Mysterious Skin (2004), Brick (2005), G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Looper (2012), and Lincoln (2012). He portrayed Philippe Petit in the Robert Zemeckis-directed film The Walk (2015) and whistleblower Edward Snowden in the Oliver Stone film Snowden (2016). In 2020, he had a supporting role in the legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7

Most of these Jewish actors have also been at the forefront of social change. They have used their platform to speak out against injustice and to promote equality. They are an inspiration to people all over the world. These actors’ contributions to cinema are immeasurable.