
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 3, 1993                   TAG: 9310030132
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

REIZEL BOZYK, MOVIE AND STAGE ACTRESS, DIES

Actress Reizel Bozyk, who played the matchmaking grandmother in the movie "Crossing Delancey," has died. She was 79.

The Polish-born Bozyk, who died Thursday, began acting in her native Poland at age 5. She first performed with her parents and was later teamed with another young actor, Max Bozyk.

They married and spent 37 years together until he died in her arms after a 1970 performance in New York.

The couple fled the Nazis in 1939, leaving Poland for Argentina. In 1941, they arrived in the United States and spent the next three decades prospering in the Yiddish theater in America.

Bozyk was best known for playing Amy Irving's grandmother in "Crossing Delancey." The 1988 film was her first English-language role.

She didn't do an English-language play until 1989, when she appeared in "Social Security" at a New Jersey theater. She also performed her "Crossing Delancey" role on stage.

by CNB