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Assaf Dayan

DAYAN, ASSAF (Assi; 1945– ), Israeli actor, director, and writer. The son of Moshe *Dayan, he was born in Nahalal. He starred in a number of classic Israeli films, including Operation Thunderbolt (1977), the story of the Entebbe rescue operation, and Beyond the Walls (1984), a prison drama about Israeli-Palestinian relations. He also appeared in Joseph *Cedar's popular Campfire (2004) and Time of Favor (Ha-Hesder, 2000). The left-leaning actor portrayed right-wing activists in both of Cedar's films. Early on in his film career, he was cast in John Huston's A Walk with Love and Death (1969), opposite Anjelica Huston, but from then on Dayan appeared mostly in Israeli films. The highlight of his directing career was Life According to Agfa (1992), a politically charged look at the regulars of a Tel Aviv pub. Agfa won the Israeli Academy of Film and Television's award for best picture and Dayan was voted best director. Dayan's writing and directing credits include The Gospel According to God (2004) and Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer (1975). He acted in more than 35 films, including Open Heart (2002), Amos *Gitai's Zikhron Devarim (1995), and The Delta Force (1986).


Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.