Harry Nelken’s birthday is June 9. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * Harry Nelken’s birthday is June 9. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Harry Nelken’s birthday is June 9.
“Ask me what year,” the actor says. “Well, you said you were born in 1947 so..
.” the reporter responds. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Harry Nelken (left) and David Sklar “No,” Nelken interrupts.
“Ask me what year.” The reporter gives in. “OK, what year?” “Every year.
” It’s a cheesy punchline that Nelken delivers with sweet relish and mustard, his eyes twinkling with the glimmer of a job well done, having passed on a literally timeless grain of Zaida humour to the next generation of punsters. For Nelken, who has acted on Winnipeg stages since hearing an open call for auditions on CJOB for the musical in 1970, generosity of spirit is the key to performance, and probably, to life itself. The latest character the veteran actor — born in a refugee camp in Austria to a pair of Holocaust survivors — is tasked with embodying has a similar outlook, though the wisdom he shares is more on the nose, coloured by his proximity to the finish line.
The amiable Morrie Schwartz, a Brandeis sociology professor diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS, holds the cards he’s dealt and refuses to fold without seeing the hand through, managing the fate of degenerative fatality with a clear-eyed sen.