'One of most prominent figures in Israeli culture': Singer, theater icon Illy Gorlizki dies at 91

Israeli actor, singer and theater figure Illy Gorlizki, one of the most recognizable figures in Israeli culture across generations, died at the age of 91, his partner and leading cultural institutions said on Monday.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1935, Gorlizki spent more than seven decades working in theater, film, television and Israeli music, taking part in some of the formative moments of Israeli popular culture.

Gorlizki began his theater career as a teenager. At 17, he was accepted to the drama school affiliated with the Ohel Theater and simultaneously began appearing in small roles. During his military service, he joined the Central Command entertainment troupe, where he sang and performed alongside several young talents who would later become pillars of Israeli entertainment.

He secured his place in Israel’s cultural pantheon in 1964, when he starred as Shlomo in the celebrated musical King Solomon and Shalmai the Shoemaker alongside Yona Atari. The musical, based on a play by Sami Gronemann, translated and adapted by Nathan Alterman with music by Sasha Argov, became a huge success and was performed about 1,000 times.

Gorlizki and Atari became an unforgettable duo as a result and later continued their collaboration in the show Shuk Hametziot.

President Isaac Herzog called Gorlizki a "one of the most prominent figures in Israeli culture, leaving a profound mark on the stage, cinema, and Hebrew song."

"We will always remember his starring role in the play King Solomon and Shoemaker Shlomo and his legacy as a talented artist who nurtured generations of actors," the president said in a statement published on social media.

Seven decades on the Israeli stage

Gorlizki subsequently appeared in a long list of plays, musicals and films, including Three Days and a Child, Scouts, and Tevye and His Seven Daughters. Alongside his work at the Cameri Theater, he appeared in successful entertainment productions including Shuk Hametziot, Zehu Bidur, and Hachamim Balaila, the latter alongside Yossi Banai. He won three Kinor David awards for his work.

Gorlizki did not limit himself to his career as an actor and singer. He devoted a significant portion of his life to fighting for the rights of performing artists. He was the first director of EMI, the Israel Artists Association, and was among the founders of Eshkolot, the organization responsible for managing and distributing royalties to performing artists in Israel.

In 2015, when he celebrated his 80th birthday, Gorlizki spoke to Walla Culture ahead of a tribute evening held in his honor at the Cameri Theater. Asked what he had learned by the age of 80, he replied with the sentence that became the interview’s headline: "I miss tomorrow."

He spoke about the need to keep looking forward and quoted Ludwig Wittgenstein: "Do not always live on the barren heights of cleverness, descend sometimes into the green valleys of foolishness." He later referred to Dante and the line, "It is love that moves the sun and the other stars."

In retrospect, that quotation says much about Gorlizki himself. Even at 80, he did not speak of summing up his life, but of tomorrow. He belonged to a generation that largely created the language of the Israeli stage itself, a generation that connected theater, music, entertainment and Hebrew song and made them part of everyday Israeli culture.

Friends and colleagues pay tribute

Singer-songwriter Hanan Yovel eulogized Gorlizki: "Illy was a wonderful man, head and shoulders above others in every field, and a rare combination of spirit and practicality. He was extraordinarily intelligent, wrote wonderful books, was a light-footed dancer, sang the original ‘Hamsinim Bamishlat,’ and was truly a Renaissance man. King Solomon and Shalmai the Shoemaker, starring him, was a Broadway-level spectacle unlike anything seen in Israel until then, and not much since. He was a huge star, God’s deputy as far as I was concerned, and when he complimented me on melodies such as ‘Kshe-Tzilzalta Ra’ad Kolekh,’ I was beside myself with pride and excitement. He was far ahead of his time in many ways. He was born with his heart on the right side, rare even in his defects, but his heart was always in the right place. I will miss him very much."

Dalia Gutman, a media figure and former program director of Israel Television, said: "Illy was a perfect performer. In one of the programs I produced, he tap-danced, light as a butterfly. It was a pleasure to watch and hear him. Nathan Alterman attended the dress rehearsal of King Solomon and Shalmai the Shoemaker and hated every moment. He was convinced it would be a terrible failure, but Illy calmed him down and promised him he was wrong. Illy, of course, was right. It was a huge hit that audiences could not get enough of, and Illy became the star, with a capital S, of Israeli theater. His connection with Alterman, of course, continued through his collaboration with the wonderful Yona Atari, whom Illy brought back on stage toward the end of her life, when she was not at her best, for a one-time performance, in a moving gesture of love between longtime partners."

Actor and comedian Tuvia Tzafir said: "Illy, my dear friend, our Herzl and Ben-Gurion of Israeli artists, that’s what I always called him. I was so sorry to hear on Monday morning that you had gone. I know that at our age this happens more and more often, and yet it still hurts so much to lose someone like you. How do you eulogize a friend? A friend who accompanied me through so many stations in life: theater, television, and of course my personal life. You were not only a talented actor, but also a gifted singer, a man of knowledge and a philosopher, a good friend and an entrepreneur who thought about the good of everyone."

Eshkolot, the Israeli performers’ rights organization, said: "The Eshkolot family bows its head and painfully bids farewell to Illy Gorlizki, one of the company’s founders and its honorary president, who for decades was one of the central forces in the struggle for the rights of performing artists in Israel. Illy was a man of vision and action. At a time when performers’ rights were barely on the public agenda, he was among the first to identify the need for a strong body that would represent artists, protect their rights and work to ensure that they received appropriate compensation for their work. He did not settle for having a vision, but acted to turn it into reality."

David Krivoshei, chairman of the executive committee of ILAM, the royalties organization for performing musicians in Israel, said: "Illy Gorlizki was one of Israel’s greatest artists, and alongside an illustrious career as an actor, singer and stage performer, he devoted a significant part of his life to advancing the rights and status of performers in Israel. The legacy he left behind continues into the next generation."

The Cameri Theater said: "We bid farewell on Monday with deep sorrow to Illy, who joined the Cameri ensemble in 1956 and played a series of unforgettable roles, but won his place in the hearts of the public with his double role in the immortal musical King Solomon and Shalmai the Shoemaker, alongside the late Yona Atari."

His devoted partner in recent years was Anat Globus, a deputy editor of Channel 12 News’s Ulpan Shishi, who told Walla: "My Illy went on his way this morning. The house is empty. Sad. On Tuesday we will say goodbye to our Illy, to bid farewell and share all the love and memories he left behind."

Gorlizki’s coffin will lie in state at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv beginning at noon on Tuesday. His funeral will take place at 2:30 p.m. at the Menucha Nechona Cemetery in Kfar Saba. At Gorlizki’s request, no shiva will be held.