Yossi Banai

Yosef "Yossi" Banai (Hebrew: יֹוסֶף "יֹוסִי" בַנָאי) (April 13, 1932 – May 11, 2006) was an Israeli performer, singer, actor, and dramatist.

Biography

Banai was born in Jerusalem during Mandatory Palestine, 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, Ya'akov and Haim are actors, his son Yuval and nephews Ehud, Uri, Me'ir and Eviatar are musicians and singers (some of whom occasionally act), and his niece Orna 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.