Ida Kaminska - biography

Ida Kaminska (September 18, 1899 – May 21, 1980) was a Polish actress.

Early life

Born in Odessa, Russia (now Ukraine) she was the daughter of Yiddish stage actress Esther Rachel Kaminska (1870–1925) and actor, director and stage producer, Avram Izhak Kaminski (1867–1918). She was the sister of musician Josef Kaminsky (1903–1972) and cousin of actor Danny Kaye.

Early career

Ida Kaminska began a stage career at the age of five. Her first movie role was in 1912 in Mirele Efros, with her mother and her sister in other roles in the film. Her film career was brief, only appearing in four other movies in her entire career. However, in 1965, she starred in the Czechoslovak movie The Shop on Main Street (Obchod na korze, directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos), and she received a 1966 nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Her last role was The Angel Levine (1970), directed by Ján Kadár. Following her death from cardiovascular disease in 1980, she was interred in the Yiddish theater section of the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, New York.