Joseph Edward Bromberg

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Childhood and youth

The name at birth was Josef Bromberger. The family, father Hermann Bromberger and Josephine, born Roth, emigrated to the United States in 1908 and settled in New York.

He attended Gustav Blum's drama club at Stuyvesant High School, where James Cagney and Joseph L. Mankiewicz had also studied, and also studied with director Leo Bulgakov, a student of Stanislavski.

Actor career

Being short and stocky, Bromberg was selected more in secondary roles, "of character", in which he distinguished himself in the years 1930-1940.

He was a founding member (1931-1940) of the Group Theater Company, which brought plays on social and moral topics to Broadway. He also starred in a notable supporting role in Clifford Odets‘ play Awake and Sing, which he directed in 1946 at the Actors' Laboratory Theater. In 1932 he played comedic roles at the Forty-eight Street Theater.

In 1936 he signed a contract with 20th Century Fox. He made his debut in the movie Star for a Night. In addition to roles in 35 Broadway productions (sometimes under the name Joseph Bromberg), in 1936-1950 J.Edward Bromberg appeared in supporting roles in 53 feature films.

He was chosen primarily for father roles and negative characters, from the ruthless New York newspaper editor in the play Charlie Chan on Broadway to the tyrannical Arab sheik in the show Mr. Moto Takes a Chance. Despite speaking without an accent, he was asked to play the role of humble immigrants of various backgrounds. In 1948 Bromberg starred in Howard Hawks‘ A Star was Born.

In 1928 Bromberg married Goldie Doberman, with whom he had three children. One became actress Marcia Bromberg, and other screenwriter and television producer Conrad Bromberg.

McCarthyist persecutions

In the "witch-hunt" years of the late 1940s and early 1950s in the U.S., Bromberg was accused of participating in troupes known to be left-wing, such as the Group Theater or the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. In 1935 he starred in Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets, and in 1944 in the anti-war comedy Jacobowski and the Colonel. Suspected of being a member (H.Sachar 1993 p. 616) of the Communist Party section in Hollywood, Bromberg was blacklisted by the right-wing publication "Red Channels" and on June 26, 1951 was brought before the Parliamentary Committee on Anti-American Activities (in English in original "Un-American"), although he had asked to be exempted for medical reasons, suffering from a worsening of rheumatic heart disease. He was investigated by Democratic Rep. John W. Wood in Senator Joe McCarthy's circle. Bromberg refused to answer questions and denounce others, citing Amendment V to the Constitution. The press complained about the inquisitorial spirit of the investigation against him.

Accusations of being "red" compromised his acting career. He also starred on Broadway as Ambrose Atwater in the play Forbidden for Minors by Elmer Rice, a character who resembled John W. Wood, who had questioned him in the process. In the last years of his life he taught drama lessons.

He emigrated to London, where he died on December 6, 1951 of a heart attack. He was only 47 years old. On December 23, 1951, a memorial service was held at the Edison Hotel in New York, celebrating 25 years as an actor and teacher. Hundreds of colleagues participated. Actress Lee Grant, who delivered a eulogy in memory of the artist, later became a victim of the McCarthy boycott.

J. Edward Bromberg was buried in Mount Hebron Jewish Cemetery in the Flushing neighborhood of the Bronx, New York.

Elia Kazan, in her memoirs published in 1988, wrote:

″Joe Bromberg was one of the members of the Group Company that I admired the most. We consider him an actor of immense talent, a man who could play a wide variety of characters. Joe was reportedly killed by the Parliamentary Committee on Anti-American Activities. What is certain is that the pressure he was subjected to knocked him″. http://spartacus-educational.com/USAbromberg.htm

See the article written by Ivan Goldberger in wikipedia See the article written by Ivan Goldberger in wikipedia