I saw the movie The Mummy (in Hebrew: “Hamumia”) when I was visiting my brother in Jerusalem about five years ago. It took about five minutes for me to realize that nearly all the “Egyptians” in the movie were being played by Israelis. It also took about five minutes for me to start breathing again after the hot Oded Fehr first rolled back his hood to reveal his Semitic “Egyptian” punim. (And that’s so not my look, generally speaking. But I made an exception.)
Oded, of course, is Israeli. And you may know him from such movies as The Mummy Returns and Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo , and from TV’s Charmed, where he played a very evil, very — how you say? ah yes –sexy head demon who was trying to destroy Samantha Miselli, Marilyn Manson’s ex-fiancee and the other one you’ve never heard of (a stellar resume indeed). But now the former Israeli Navyman and El Al security guard is taking on the challenge of playing someone for whom he has no empathy, a Muslim terrorist, in a Showtime mini-series that airs in December.
“I told my agent I didn’t want to do it,” said Fehr, who at 34 has the tall, dark and handsome looks of an old-time Hollywood idol, as he sits outside a Starbucks in Los Angeles. After he read the script, Fehr changed his mind. “The writing was fantastic,” he said. “There was also the challenge — I have never played a role that was so far from me.”
As Ferik, Fehr is chillingly convincing as the alternately menacing and personable leader of the multinational terrorist cell, plotting to spread havoc at some of the best known Los Angeles-area landmarks. Among the likely targets considered in the opening segment are the Los Angeles International Airport, the Rose Bowl, the UCLA campus and local nuclear facilities.
I personally recommend that you skip the end of the article, unless you want your fantasies ruined by learning that he’s married with a kid named Atticus. (But in Hebrew it’s Attikot, undoubtedly.)
But if you must read more, the JTA article is here. And for his filmography, check the IMDB, here.
cyh
11/21/2005
Oded’s a solid actor. And yes, he’s Israeli, and Ashkenazi at that (he even speaks German). How dare the dirty Jew play a noble Arab!!
joy
11/21/2005
Damn, why are all delicious men married, gay, or so in awe of their parents that they can’t…!
Katrina
11/21/2005
just a question – not that transliterations of hebrew words really matter in their spelling, but still the general sound of face in hebrew is panim, right? not punim. punim sounds kinda strange to me, hence i ask is it meant to be face in hebrew, or am I not getting something here?
ck
11/21/2005
punim is the yiddish version of panim, hebrew for face.
mili
11/21/2005
oded fehr is so hot!wuuuu….is he really ashkenazi??…only his father i think…he look like a sephardic jew…sephardic jews are hotter:P
ofri
11/21/2005
he is genetically blessed, yes, and undoubtedly works very hard to maintain his lovely physique, but until he cuts his hair and shaves the ridiculous facial hair (which i sincerely hope are just for his gigolo character), i still can’t believe you ladies are attracted to the greasy gigolo from deuce bigolo. next someone will tell me they’re in love with rob schneider.
ofri
11/21/2005
and atticus?! i love To Kill a Mockingbird just as much as the next person, maybe even more, but take a cue from jewlicious Jake Gyllenhaal and name your dog Atticus, not the Jewish fruit of your loins.
Katrina
11/21/2005
oh i see! thanks!
Ephraim
11/21/2005
He has the “tall, dark and handsome looks of an old-time Hollywood idol”? In what universe?
If Hollywood were located somewhere in Damascus or Cairo, maybe. A handsome man, yes, but I ain’t seen no old-time Hollywood idol who looked anything like that. (Of course, the only thing I remember from the Mummy movies in the delectable and totally Jewlicious Rachel Weizs. But that’s just me. Loved that swordfight with the villainess.)
If he had been an old-time Hollywood actor, he would have been the guy in the burnoose in “The Road to Baghdad” who was trying to buy Bing Crosby’s girlfriend or something.
Anyway, why does he look like he should be lounging on a corner in Tel Aviv wearing skin-tight pants, a slik shirt open to the navel and enough gold chains to embarrass Snoop Doggy Dog?
ofri
11/21/2005
he totally looks like an ars. i agree. but i did look at his pictures on imdb and i’m glad to report he doesn’t rock the greasy curls in his spare time.
cyh
11/21/2005
Mili, his family made aliyah from from Germany. Fehr is a Yekke — the epitome of Ashkenazi.
ofri
11/21/2005
there’s another actor, Brendan Fehr. he is very white and/but (depending on your taste) very jewlicious.
Grace
11/22/2005
All I can think of when I look at that picture is, he looks exactly like the guy who was trying to pick me up at the Ein Gedi spa. Mr. Smoove “Is this your first time in Israel?”. (note, the guy tried to pick me up, and I was wearing a long sleeved dress, my hair was covered, and I had a HUGE diamond wedding ring on. Hello?) Gah! If I had a dollar for every sabra that tried that line with me, I could have bought a house in Haifa.
esther
11/22/2005
Good picture of his “guns” there (Lord knows where CK found this pic), but he’s looked better, IMHO. Here he’s in character as a gigolo. I think he looks better when he’s a little better groomed. But he also looked pretty good as an Egyptian defender of the pyramids and the mummy in the Mummy…OK, I think I’m over this story for now.
Ben-David
11/22/2005
… looking for an Ashkenazi hunk who LOOKS Ashkenazi? Try this one:
ben-cohen.com/
gimpy
11/22/2005
Now Ben-David, you’re going to give us all Barbie complexes all over again. More Ashkenazis look like this fellow then your blond friend. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
JenniFehr
11/25/2005
I’m not Jewish, but I’m a huge fan of Oded’s, and I think he’s hot, hair short or long, with or without facial hair (although my preference is long hair and facial hair). I adore “Antoine,” “Ardeth Bay,” and all his characters! I’m so jealous of his wife (who appears to be pregnant again)!
As I said before, I’m not Jewish, so can someone enlighten me as to what “Ashkenazi” means? Thanks!
ofri
11/25/2005
it’s complicated. officially i believe ashkenazim are Jews who lived in the Rhineland in the middle ages and later spread over Europe, mostly east. today in Israel spharadim (literally Spanish) are basically Jews who aren’t ashkenazim, but i think officially they are Jews who came from Iberia. mizrahim are lumped in with them though, most of the time, even though they come from the middle east, north africa, etc. if anyone is better informed, as i’m sure someone on this site will be, please correct me.
Linda
7/23/2006
Well he is lovely, are there any more like him..please send one my way.