1.0.04•wwsesemilimipow - _ .nimusairttm-,atiom THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, July 6, 1984 11 For 'Moscow on Hudson' co-star, film struck very close to home BY HERBERT LUFT Hollywood — Ellya Bas- kin, a former member of the Moscow Comedy Theater whose life story sounds like the escape of Robin Williams in Paul Mazurs- ky's Moscow on the Hudson, talked recently about his portrayal of the film's melancholic clown who backs out of a chance to de- fect to the United States at the last minute. Baskin is a 34-year-old Jewish boy from Riga — in his own life showing more courage and determi- nation than did the char- acter of Anatoly who lacks courage to sever ties with the past. Baskiri mentioned his traumatic experience when struggling to learn English to start anew, just like Williams does in Mos- cow on the Hudson. Shaking off the nightmarish thought that he may never be able to do the things he cherished so much on the Russian stage, Baskin found jobs in cliche roles in Hollywood, such as the Soviet diplomat ' in Raise the Titanic. Born in 1950, Baskin studied theater arts in Mos- cow, after four years of col- lege, spent one year in a variety show and at the age of 22 joined the comedy the- ater. He went to Vienna in 1976 on immigration papers for Israel; arriving in New York, he was sent by the HIAS to Phoenix, Ariz. where he first-worked for four months at the Biltmore restaurant. By chancp, he met producer Paul Mas- lansky, who had been in Russia for the shooting of the motion picture Blue Bird. Through Maslansky, Baskin obtained employ- Detainees from Cypriot ship • released after Israel probe Tel Aviv (JTA) — Israel Five were scheduled to be will release five of the nine turned over the Interna- passengers taken off a tional Red Cross this week Beirut-bound Cypriot car for transportation to Beirut. ferry that was intercepted According to reports, the by the Israeli navy on the ferry was intercepted on the high seas Friday and es- basis of information that corted to Haifa in what the • one or more terrorists were Foreign Ministry said was bound for Beirut. an anti-terrorist operation. Meanwhile, the south The vessel, the Panamanian-flag Alisur Lebanese ports of Tyre and Blanco, was released late Sidon were reopened Mon- Friday and completed its day after being shut down 'voyage to Beirut, begun a for the better part of a week day earlier at Larnaca, by the Israel Defense Force. Cyprus. Israeli security The IDF said the closure agents screened all 63 was necessary to tighten se- passengers and held nine of curity against arms them over the weekend for smuggling into south Leba- non. questioning. ■ ment in Hollywood, starting with feature -roles in Gene Wilder's The World's Greatest Lover (1977),Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—the latter years (1978) and the Peter Sellers pic- ture, Being There, portray- ing in the latter a Russian ambassador. He has been in a number of television episodes. When meeting Mazursky, he suggested to him to enlarge the role of a circus musician to the one of the clown, a part of a love- able but weak character. In his latest role, Baskin portrays a Soviet cos- monaut in MGM's 2010, joining two col leagues from Moscow on the Hudson, Savely Kramarov and Oleg Rud- nik, in the search for American astronaut David Bowman bound for the planet Jupiter. • Film director Robert Wise has been awarded the Torch of Freedom by the State of Israel at the annual Salute to the Film Industry, an event for Israel Bonds in Los Angeles. A leading member of the motion picture indus- try, who has visited Israel on several occasions, Wise has been most supportive in strengthening the economic infrastructure of the Jewish state. .Born Sept. 10, 1914, in Winchester, Ind., a gradu- ate of Franklin College, he went to Hollywood in 1933 seeking a job in the movie industry. At 19, he started modestly as a messenger in the RKO film editing de- partment. In 1936, he was promoted to assistant cut- ter. He became a full film editor in 1939 and was privileged to work on two classic Orson Welles pic- tures of the period, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, among other top features for RKO. He became a film director in 1943 and was busy at RKO, Twentieth Century-Fox, the Mirisch Company and MGM Studios. Wise became a double Oscar winner twice; as best director and as producer of the best picture, for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965), both adapted to the screen from Broadway musicals. The director devotes much of his time to serve organizations of his craft, such as the Academy of Mo- tion Picture Arts and Sci- ences, the American Film Institute and the Director's Guild of America, having been the president of the latter from 1970 to 1974. . Equal access amendment scored by B'nai B'rith Washington — B'nai B'rith International as- sailed the passage of the Equal Access Amendment by the U.S. Senate and urged the House of Repre- sentatives to resist it. B'nai B'rith President Gerald Kraft declared that the legislation "represents a fracture in the wall separat- ing church and state." Kraft added that it also is "a set- back for the right of all Americans to practice their religion free of pressure." The B'nai B'rith leader acknowledged that efforts were made in the Senate to make the amendment "less odious" to the Jewish com- munity and other groups. However, he said, "we are deeply concerned that the legislation will result in school premises being thrown open to cultists and extremist political groups seeking respectability and greater acceptance." Kraft said that even though the amendment does not allow religious clubs to meet during the school day, "this mingling of religion with the public schools still gives the im- pression of official sanction and, together with peer pressure, could unduly influence students to par- ticipate. 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