Tovah Feldshuh

Highest Rated: 89% The Idolmaker (1980)

Lowest Rated: 0% The Blue Iguana (1988)

Birthday: Dec 27, 1952

Birthplace: New York, New York, USA

Broadway star Tovah Feldshuh has focused her energies on her stage career, including such high-profile roles as the original lead in both the Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of the play "Yentl," which Barbra Streisand later took to the screen. But the Westchester County native has a small but impressive list of film and television credits as well. Following several years' worth of minor TV credits (including a brief stint on the soap opera "Ryan's Hope"), Feldshuh garnered critical acclaim for her key role as Helena Slomova, a member of the Czechoslovakian Jewish underground, in the 1978 miniseries "Holocaust," and for her recurring role as attorney Danielle Melnick on "Law and Order." As Feldshuh matured, she developed both an ongoing career as a cabaret singer and a sideline playing Jewish mothers in romantic comedies such as "Kissing Jessica Stein" and "Happy Accidents." In 2006, Feldshuh recreated the role of Golda Meir in the historical drama "O Jerusalem," set against the founding of Israel; she had previously played the legendary politician in the one-woman Broadway show "Golda's Balcony."