Actor and screenwriter Reuven Bar Yotam passed away today (Monday) at the age of 85 at a hospital in Los Angeles, where he has lived since 1980. Bar Yotam has starred in dozens of films, the best known of which is “Salomonico”. He is survived by three children: a son and two daughters (one of whom died in 2014).
Bar Yotam came from a family from Turkey and grew up in Haifa. He began his career at the age of 13 in Eliezer Ansky’s children’s theater “Matanu”, and then played in the Ohel repertoire theaters and in the Haifa theater, which he was one of the first to do. Emerged to London and Rome, where he played a small role in the film “Two Enemies” starring David Niven and Alberto Surdi.
Bar Yotam began his career in Israeli cinema in the film “Target Tiran” from 1968 and appeared in eight Israeli films, including “Bloomilch Canal” from 1969 and “Bloomfield” from 1971. Participated in the films “Salomonico” and the sequel, “It will be good Salomonico”, in the lead role, when he was inspired by the character from watching his father and family from Salonika and their ropes of absorption in the State of Israel while emphasizing the tension between Ashkenazis and Mizrahis Bar Yotam appeared in “The Persuasive Ltd.” from 1973, “Let’s Blow Up a Million” from 1977 and “Operation Jonathan.”
In 1980 he emigrated to the United States and left a wife and two daughters in the country. He tried his luck in Hollywood, where he played many small roles in movies or miniseries, including “Masada” from 1981, as editor of “El Gumhouria” in “Sadat” from 1983, and mostly in guest roles in the series “LA Lawyers”, ” Nikita, “Blues for the Uniform Blues,” “Falcon Crest,” “McGiver,” “Murder by Pulling a Pen,” “Seinfeld” and “Don’t Mess with the Zohan.”
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In 2016, the documentary “My Little Creature” was directed by Shani Rased. The film follows the search for Hila Bar Yotam’s biological father, who claims that her father is Reuven Bar Yotam, who was a lover in a long affair with her mother, before leaving the country. In the film, Hila meets with Bar Yotam’s acquaintances, and follows his cool moves, and even remembers that he would have come to visit her if he had come to Israel, but nevertheless Reuven Bar Yotam denied that he was Hila’s biological father.