Judith Malina
Born	(1926-06-04)June 4, 1926 Kiel,Province of Schleswig-Holstein,Weimar Republic
Died	April 10, 2015(2015-04-10) (aged 88) Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Resting place	Cedar Park Cemetery, New Jersey
Citizenship	American
Education	The New School for Social Research
Occupations	Actress, director, writer
Known for	Co-foundingThe Living Theatre
Spouses	Julian Beck ​ ​ (m. 1948; died 1985)​ Hanon Reznikov ​ ​ (m. 1988; died 2008)​
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Judith Malina (June 4, 1926 – April 10, 2015) was a Jewish-American actress, director and writer. With her husbandJulian Beck, Malina co-foundedThe Living Theatre, a radical political theatre troupe that rose to prominence in New York City and Paris during the 1950s and 1960s.

Malina was born inKiel,Weimar Germany, the daughter of Polish Jewish parents: her mother, Rosel (née Zamora), was a former actress, and her father, Max Malina, a rabbi in theconservative denomination.^[1][2] In 1929, at the age of 3, she immigrated with her parents to New York City.^[3]

Malina's parents influenced her deeply, leading her to find an interest in political theatre, as her father left Germany with his family, largely due to the rise ofantisemitism in the late 1920s, after attempting to warn people of the threat posed byNazism.^[4]

From 1943 until 1945, Malina worked forValeska Gert at theBeggar Bar. There she observed many of Gert's performances which influenced her later artistic approach.^[5][6] Interested in acting from an early age, she began attending theNew School for Social Research in 1945 to study theatre underErwin Piscator. Malina was greatly influenced by Piscator's philosophy of theatre. Piscator saw theatre as a form of political communication oragitprop ("Theatre interests me only when it is a matter of interest to society.").^[7] Malina, unlike Piscator, was committed tononviolence andanarchism.^[8]

In 1947, Malina and her husbandJulian Beck openedThe Living Theatre, an experimental theatre company that focused on producing unconventional works by both American and European authors. By 1963, all three of the Living Theatre venues in New York had been shut down by authorities, in one instance by theIRS due to a tax dispute. The organization attributes this to "the difficulty of operating a unique, experimental enterprise within a cultural establishment ill-equipped to accept it", though the group returned to the United States in 1968.^[9]

Malina appeared occasionally in films, beginning in 1975, when she playedAl Pacino's mother inDog Day Afternoon. Using her for the role was Pacino's idea, said its directorSidney Lumet. Lumet recalled that contacting her was difficult because she had moved to Vermont. "I had no idea of what to expect," said Lumet. "I didn't even know whether she'd want to do a 'commercial' film. Well, let me tell you, she is an actress. Totally professional. She also had no money, and we had to pay her fare from Vermont, but she walked in and was perfect."^[10][11]

She also appeared in Pacino'sLooking for Richard. Malina's other roles in cinema include Rose inAwakenings (1990) andGranny inThe Addams Family (1991). She had major roles inHousehold Saints (1993) and the low-budget filmNothing Really Happens (2003). She appeared in an episode of the TV seriesThe Sopranos in 2006 as a nun, the secret mother ofPaulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri. She also has a significant supporting role in the filmEnemies, A Love Story (1989), based on the novel byIsaac Bashevis Singer. The Living Theatre and its founders were the subject of the 1983 documentarySignals Through The Flames.

Malina is the subject of the documentaryLove and Politics (2012) by Azad Jafarian and took part inRosa von Praunheim's documentaryNew York Memories (2010). Von Praunheim's film premiered at theBerlin International Film Festival in 2010 and Jafarian's premiered in 2012 at theTribeca Film Festival.

Theater scholarRichard Schechner said:

The thing about Judith Malina is that she is indefatigable, unstoppable, erupting with ideas. Malina is long-living, long-working, optimistic, and by the second decade of the 21st century girlish and old womanish at the same time. She survives and she bubbles, both.^[12]

Malina met her long-time collaborator and husbandJulian Beck in 1943 when she was 17 and he was a student at Yale University. Beck, originally a painter, came to share her interest in political theatre. In 1947, the couple foundedThe Living Theatre, which they directed together until Beck's death in 1985. Beck and Malina had "two offstage children", Garrick and Isha.

Malina's and Beck's marriage was non-monogamous. The bisexual Beck had a long-term male partner as did Malina. In 1988, she married her long-term partner Hanon Reznikov.^[13] They co-directed the Living Theatre's activity in the Middle East, Europe and the United States, until Reznikov's unexpected death in 2008.^[13]

While not on tour, Malina lived in New York City until she moved to theLillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey in 2013.^[14][15] Malina died in Englewood, New Jersey, on April 10, 2015.^[12]

In 1996, Malina was awarded an honoraryDoctor of Humane Letters degree from Whittier College.^[16] In 2007, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Lehman College.^[17] In 2008 she received theOrdem do Mérito Cultural from the government of Brazil.^[18][19]

This list related to film, television, or video isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(June 2025)

• 2003, induction into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame.^[22]
• 2008, annual Artistic Achievement Award from theNew York Innovative Theatre Awards. This honor was presented to Malina byOlympia Dukakis on behalf of her peers and fellow artists of theOff-Off-Broadway community "in recognition of her unabashed pioneering spirit and unyielding dedication to her craft and the Off-Off-Broadway community".^[23][24]
• 2009, the Edwin Booth Award from the Doctoral Theatre Students Association of the City University of New York.
• Other awards include the Lola d'Annunzio award (1959); Page One Award (1960); Obie Award (1960, 1964, 1969, 1975, 1987, 1989, and 2007); Creative Arts Citation, Brandeis University (1961); Grand Prix du Théâtre des Nations (1961); Paris Critics Circle medallion (1961); Prix de L'Université de Paris (1961); New England Theater Conference Award (1962); Olympio Prize (1967); and a Guggenheim fellowship (1985).

Wikimedia Commons has media related toJudith Malina.

• The Living Theatre official site
• Judith Malina atIMDb
• Judith Malina diaries, 1947-1959, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Living Theatre records, 1945-1991, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Judith Malina at theInternet Off-Broadway Database (archived)

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