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Assi Dayan
Assi Dayan
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Assaf "Assi" Dayan (Hebrew: אסף "אסי" דיין‎; 23 November 1945 – 1 May 2014) was an Israeli film director, actor, screenwriter, and producer.

Key Information

Life

[edit]

Dayan was the youngest son of Israeli general and defense minister Moshe Dayan and peace activist Ruth Dayan (née Schwartz). He had two siblings: politician and author Yael Dayan, born 1939,[2] and sculptor Ehud (Udi) Dayan, born 1942.[3] He attended Tichon Hadash high school in Tel Aviv.[4] After military service and studying philosophy and English literature at Hebrew University, Dayan embarked on a career as film actor, which eventually also led to directing.[5][6]

He was married and divorced four times and had four children. His first marriage was to Aharona Melkind, with whom he had a daughter, Amalia[7] and a son, Avner. His second wife was actress Caroline Langford,[8] daughter of Barry Langford. They had one son together, Lior. From a relationship with Augusta Neumann, he had a daughter, Assia.[3] His third wife was actress Smadar Kilchinsky.[9] In 1999, his fourth wife, ceramic artist Vered Tandler Dayan, made a documentary film about him, titled Living, Period.[10]

In March 2009, Dayan was indicted on suspicion of drug use and beating his girlfriend. In the wake of an earlier conviction for possession of drugs, he received a suspended sentence and 200 hours of community work as part of a plea bargain. Dayan admitted at the time that he was in possession of cocaine for personal use.[11]

In November 2009, Dayan suffered a massive heart attack and underwent angioplasty at Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital.[12]

Dayan died on 1 May 2014, at his home in Tel Aviv. Media reports noted his health issues and struggles with drug use.[13][14]

Career

[edit]
Dayan in Finita la comedia (2011) as Ludwig van Beethoven

Acting

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In 1967, Dayan established himself as a film actor and Israeli icon in He Walked Through the Fields, Yossi Milo's adaptation of Moshe Shamir's novel and play by that name.[15] That year, he appeared in Micha Shagrir's Scouting Patrol, about elite fighters on a mission to capture the commander of a fedayeen squad.[16] In 1969 Dayan co-starred in the American movie A Walk with Love and Death, set in medieval France and directed by John Huston, in which he plays alongside Huston's daughter, Anjelica.[17] He portrayed Giora Geter, owner of a Tel Aviv pub whose life falls apart, in Eitan Green's Into the Night.[16] He also wrote, produced, and played the role of Banjo[18] in Fifty-Fifty, part of the Israeli Bourekas Film genre.[19]

In 1984, Dayan had a supporting role as a prisoner in Uri Barbash's Beyond the Walls, described as an important milestone in Israeli political cinema.[16] Other acting credits include Operation Thunderbolt, about the Israeli raid in Entebbe, nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Dayan is the deputy of Yoni Netanyahu, played by Yehoram Gaon.[16]

Dayan played the leading role of psychologist Reuven Dagan in the TV drama series BeTipul, which ran for two seasons on Israeli TV (2005 and 2008). The series was later adapted for the US market by HBO under the name In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne in the lead role.[12]

By 2008 Dayan had acted in some 50 films and TV series episodes.[19]

Directing

[edit]

Dayan directed 16 films.[19] In 1976 he directed Giv'at Halfon Eina Ona, a comedy about a group of military reservists in the Sinai. In 1992, he wrote and directed Life According to Agfa, portraying life in a Tel Aviv pub. The film was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival and won an Honorable Mention.[20] In 1999, he was a member of the jury at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.[21]

Awards and recognition

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Dayan won the Israeli Academy Award as Best Actor for Mr. Baum.[17] In 1998, he received a lifetime achievement award at the Jerusalem International Film Festival. His role in Time of Favor was acclaimed by Israeli critics as his best screen role of his career.[17]

Selected filmography

[edit]
Dayan's grave in Nahalal

See also

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References

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
Assaf "Assi" Dayan (Hebrew: אסף "אסי" דיין; 23 November 1945 – 1 May 2014) was an Israeli , , , and whose career spanned over four decades in Israeli cinema. Born in to , Israel's former defense minister and military chief of staff, Dayan debuted as an in 1967 with the lead role of Uri in He Walked Through the Fields, a of a seminal Israeli that established him as a prominent figure in the burgeoning local . His work encompassed acting in over 50 films, including international productions like (1986), and directing features that explored themes of Israeli society, , and mortality, often reflecting his own preoccupation with death as a metaphor for collective national psyche. Dayan's , however, was marked by chronic , multiple arrests for drug possession, and complications including a 2009 heart attack, which contributed to his death at age 68 from undisclosed causes in . Despite these struggles, he remained an iconic and irreverent presence in Israeli culture, contributing to classics that shaped the nation's cinematic identity while embodying its contradictions through his art and excesses.

Early Life

Family Background

Assi Dayan was born on November 23, 1945, in , a in that would become part of , as the youngest child of and (née Schwartz). , a pioneering military commander who led forces in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, served as from 1953 to 1958 and later as Minister of Defense during the 1967 , embodying the ethos of Israel's early security imperatives. , an agricultural pioneer who co-founded the Maskit organization in 1954 to promote Israeli artisanry and aid immigrant integration, contributed to the cultural fabric of the nascent state through initiatives blending tradition with economic development. The Dayan household, rooted in Nahalal's cooperative moshav structure established by Moshe's father Shmuel in 1921, reflected the Zionist ideals of self-reliance, communal labor, and defense readiness that defined Israel's formative years amid existential threats. Assi grew up alongside siblings Yael Dayan (born 1939), who pursued writing and politics, and Ehud "Udi" Dayan (born 1942), a sculptor, in an environment where familial stability intertwined with the pressures of and public scrutiny. This upbringing instilled early familiarity with through his father's high-profile career, including frontline command roles, fostering a household attuned to Israel's security struggles yet marked by the kibbutz-moshav ethos of collective resilience.

Childhood and Education

Assi Dayan was born on November 23, 1945, in , a cooperative moshav in Israel's established as the country's first such settlement in 1921. As the youngest child of , Israel's chief of staff during the 1956 Sinai Campaign and later defense minister, and , founder of the Maskit fashion house, he was raised in a family central to the nation's military and cultural foundations. His siblings included , future author and Knesset member, and Ehud Dayan, a sculptor, while extended family ties encompassed his grandfather , a Party Knesset member, and uncle , air force commander and eventual president. Dayan's formative years unfolded in Nahalal's agricultural community, which embodied the self-reliant ethos of early Zionist pioneers amid Israel's turbulent post-1948 independence period, including regional conflicts and efforts. This environment, combined with his father's high-profile military absences, fostered a shaped by both privilege and the weight of familial legacy, often portraying native-born Sabras as resilient yet introspective figures. Though details of primary schooling remain sparse, his early experiences highlighted a contrast to the disciplined military norms exemplified by his father, foreshadowing later personal rebellions through pursuits outside conventional paths. Following compulsory military service, Dayan enrolled at the to study and English literature, a choice signaling an early pivot toward intellectual and creative endeavors rather than prolonged military or political engagement. This academic focus, completed in the late 1960s, equipped him with a foundation in and literary analysis, diverging from the security-oriented trajectories of his relatives and aligning with emerging bohemian influences in Israeli society prior to his entry into .

Professional Career

Acting Roles

Dayan made his acting debut in the 1967 film He Walked in the Fields (Holeh Ba'Sadot), directed by Yosef Milo, where he portrayed Uri, a young kibbutznik grappling with romantic disillusionment and military duty on the eve of the . As the son of then-Defense Minister , his selection for the lead role capitalized on familial prominence to launch his screen presence in Israeli cinema. This patriotic drama marked his breakthrough, embodying the idealized Sabra archetype of the resilient native Israeli. In the early 1970s, Dayan appeared in international productions such as John Huston's A Walk with Love and Death (1969), alongside Anjelica Huston, and followed with Israeli films like Hetzi-Hetzi (1971), often depicting introspective or troubled young men navigating post-war societal expectations. His roles evolved to challenge heroic norms, as seen in Operation Thunderbolt (1977), a dramatization of the Entebbe raid where he played a commando, blending valor with underlying personal tensions reflective of shifting Israeli identities. By the 1990s, Dayan's performances matured into portrayals of alienated antiheroes, exemplified by his lead role as Mickey Baum in Mr. Baum (1997), an advertising executive given 92 minutes to live after a terminal diagnosis, unleashing pent-up rage toward family and existence while exposing hypocrisies in modern Israeli life. Across more than 50 credits in films and television, he recurrently embodied flawed outsiders critiquing cultural facades, transitioning from mythic heroism to raw de-mystification of the Israeli everyman.

Directing and Screenwriting

Dayan made his directorial debut with the film in 1973, marking an entry into cinema that interrogated aspects of Israeli society amid the post-1967 context. This initial work set a pattern for his approach, favoring narratives that probed social tensions through a lens of raw, unpolished realism rather than polished commercial structures. Over the subsequent decades, he directed a total of 16 feature films, frequently incorporating elements of and introspection to dissect cultural and personal frailties. His stylistic evolution shifted from early 1970s productions influenced by popular "" melodramas—light ethnic comedies reflecting class divides—to more experimental works that emphasized provocative, ensemble-driven stories challenging conventional Israeli self-perception. Films like Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer (1976) exemplified this blend, using military to critique bureaucratic absurdities rooted in experiences. Dayan's screenplays, often self-authored for his directorial projects, prioritized causal depictions of human dysfunction over idealized resolutions, drawing on observed social dynamics for authenticity. A notable example of his screenwriting-directing synergy is Life According to Agfa (1992), where he scripted a mosaic narrative unfolding in a nightclub, exposing intersections of crime, sexuality, and alienation as microcosms of urban undercurrents. This film, like others in his oeuvre, eschewed mainstream appeal for unflinching portrayals that mirrored real-world contingencies, including interpersonal betrayals and societal fractures, often funded through personal networks due to limited institutional backing. His contributions extended to scripting for non-directorial ventures, though primary emphasis remained on integrated authorial control to maintain narrative integrity tied to experiential insights.

Key Films and Contributions

Assi Dayan's directorial debut came with (1973), a exploring themes of deception and moral ambiguity in an Israeli context. His work in the increasingly incorporated , exemplified by Halfon Hill Doesn't Answer (1976), which he directed and which featured the comedy trio HaGashash HaHiver in a story of a bumbling Israeli Reserves unit stationed in the amid the post-1973 War tensions. The film combined humor with pointed critique of bureaucratic incompetence and the absurdities of conscript life, achieving cult status as one of Israel's most commercially successful comedies of the era. By the 1990s, Dayan's films shifted toward darker, introspective examinations of societal fractures. Life According to Agfa (1992), which he wrote and directed, unfolds over a single night in a nightclub, portraying interactions among soldiers, prostitutes, drug users, and as a microcosm of a militarized, self-destructive Israeli society marked by inequality and hedonism. Selected as Israel's entry for the , it highlighted emerging cinematic trends toward unvarnished critiques of national myths. This was followed by Mr. Baum (1997), the concluding part of his informal trilogy on contemporary Israeli dysfunction, where a terminally ill advertising executive confronts personal and familial neglect in his final 92 minutes, serving as an allegory for broader existential alienation. Dayan's oeuvre contributed to Israeli cinema's evolution from heroic war narratives of the to more cynical, psychologically probing works in subsequent decades, emphasizing the corrosive effects of perpetual and the of foundational ideals without romanticization. His direction of over a dozen features, often blending acting roles with screenwriting, facilitated this transition by prioritizing raw depictions of social rifts over propagandistic optimism, influencing later filmmakers to explore internal conflicts with empirical candor.

Personal Life

Marriages and Children

Assi Dayan was married four times, with each union ending in divorce or separation. His first marriage, to Aharona Melkind, produced two children: a daughter named Amalia and a son named Avner. He later married actress Caroline Langford, with whom he had a son, . Dayan's other spouses included actress Smadar Kilchinsky and Vered Tandler-Dayan. In addition to his three children from marriages, Dayan fathered a daughter, Assia (also known as Assia Neumann), from a non-marital relationship with Augusta Neumann. These familial ties were characterized by multiple separations, reflecting patterns of relational instability in Dayan's personal life.

Addiction and Health Struggles

Assi Dayan struggled with chronic throughout much of his adult life, beginning with and progressing to other including Ritalin, alongside heavy alcohol consumption. He faced multiple arrests for drug possession and use, including a prior to a 2009 for drug consumption and assaulting his girlfriend. These issues stemmed from personal choices, with Dayan publicly acknowledging his patterns of in drugs, , and excessive behaviors that exacerbated his physical deterioration. In November 2009, Dayan suffered a severe heart attack, necessitating to address arterial blockages likely aggravated by years of , chemical substance use, and —he reportedly weighed 130 kilograms at the time. His self-described "material fatigue" from accumulated lifestyle excesses, including cigarettes and drugs, contributed directly to this cardiac event and ongoing health decline, independent of external factors. Dayan's efforts to curb his addictions were inconsistent, marked by repeated relapses evident in serial arrests and public admissions of failed against compulsive patterns. Despite occasional expressions of intent to reform, such as in interviews reflecting on his excesses, his agency repeatedly yielded to addictive impulses, perpetuating a cycle of substance dependency and related physiological strain without sustained recovery.

Controversies

Public Scandals

Dayan faced multiple legal issues related to drug possession and use throughout his later career. In January 2004, he was convicted in Magistrate's Court for possessing 7.3 grams of for personal use under a , resulting in a sentence of 200 hours of . He had been arrested several times previously for offenses, contributing to a pattern of legal entanglements tied to his long-term struggles. In 2009, Dayan was indicted on charges including drug use alongside against his then-partner. On March 27, 2009, he allegedly assaulted the pregnant woman during an argument, beating her and threatening her with a , leading to his . In June 2009, a found him guilty of following the indictment, to which he pleaded partially guilty. He received a one-year suspended prison sentence, was ordered into initially at a hotel near , required to undergo a year of psychiatric treatment, and mandated to submit to regular drug testing via urine samples. These incidents drew media scrutiny in , with coverage highlighting the contrast between Dayan's public persona as a provocative filmmaker and his personal recklessness, though some associates framed his behavior as emblematic of a bohemian artist's excesses rather than deliberate harm.

Conflicts with Family Legacy

Assi Dayan, the youngest son of —the Israeli defense minister who orchestrated the swift victory in the 1967 —served in the Israel Defense Forces as a but eschewed the military path that defined his father's career, instead channeling his energies into , directing, and a bohemian lifestyle that often lampooned militaristic norms. This divergence manifested in Dayan's films, such as Halfon Hill Doesn’t Answer (1976), which satirized the Israeli army shortly after the 1973 , marking an early cinematic rebuke of institutional reverence for military service amid national trauma. His work reflected a deliberate posture, contrasting sharply with Moshe Dayan's legacy of battlefield heroism and strategic command, which had cemented the elder Dayan's status as a national icon. In public statements, Assi Dayan critiqued the reductive image of as synonymous with soldiers and , declaring in that "Israel is more than grapefruit and soldiers," thereby positioning his artistic output as a counter-narrative to the hero worship surrounding figures like his . He took overt stands against Moshe Dayan's policies, including in 1974 when he advocated for his father's from government amid political scrutiny, and later expressed support for full Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories, including , in exchange for peace—views that underscored his rejection of unyielding territorial maximalism tied to military gains. These positions amplified personal tensions, as Assi described inheriting only "heartburn and impatience" from Moshe, signaling emotional estrangement in a 2011 . Despite such public distancing, Dayan's career benefited from the Dayan surname's prestige, providing early access to opportunities in Israel's cultural scene even as he cultivated an persona in opposition to his father's exploits—a dynamic that reports framed as living perpetually in Moshe's shadow rather than a broader of societal structures. His persistent personal struggles with and instability, documented across decades, were exacerbated by inevitable comparisons to Moshe's decisive achievements, highlighting how individual choices under familial scrutiny contributed to relational fractures more than any purported flaws in Israel's foundational ethos of resilience.

Death and Legacy

Final Years and Passing

In the years following his November 2009 heart attack and subsequent angioplasty at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital, Assi Dayan attempted recovery while residing in his Tel Aviv home, though his health continued to deteriorate due to obesity, chronic substance use, and cardiac strain. By 2011, he had directed and starred in his final film, Dr. Pomerantz, a black comedy portraying a struggling psychologist, after which professional output sharply declined amid physical exhaustion and limited mobility. Dayan, weighing approximately 130 kilograms at one point, publicly described his body's collapse from "cigarettes, chemicals, and material fatigue," reflecting persistent battles with addiction and organ stress that curtailed daily activities. Dayan died on May 1, 2014, at his apartment at the age of 68; he was found dead, with reports attributing the event to complications from long-term drug use and heart problems, as corroborated by family statements on his medical history. His mother, , along with siblings and children, confirmed the passing amid his documented health decline, though no official details were released publicly. The news dominated Israeli media immediately, underscoring his cultural prominence. He was buried the following day in , with a attended by family members—including his mother, brother Udi, and children Lior and Avner Dayan—as well as close friends and colleagues who eulogized his resilience despite frailty. Mourners gathered at the Yarkon Cemetery, where tributes focused on his final years' isolation and unyielding personal struggles, without delving into speculative etiology.

Awards and Cultural Impact

Dayan received the Award for for his performance in the 1997 film Mr. Baum, recognizing his portrayal of a terminally ill executive confronting mortality. In 1998, the Jerusalem International Film Festival presented him with a lifetime achievement award, honoring his multifaceted contributions to Israeli cinema as , director, and . The Israeli Academy of Film and Television awarded him another lifetime achievement honor at the 2009 ceremony, acknowledging his record of eight wins across categories despite erratic productivity. Dayan's films exerted influence on Israeli cinema by depicting societal disillusionment, militarization's psychological toll, and the erosion of Zionist idealism, often through raw, taboo-breaking narratives that contrasted with state-sanctioned optimism. His enfant terrible persona and works like Life According to Agfa (1992) challenged cultural myths, fostering a shift toward introspective, existential storytelling that mirrored Israel's post-idealist realities. However, assessments of his impact are tempered by observations of inconsistency; chronic and personal instability—publicly acknowledged in his own accounts and obituaries—interrupted sustained output, leading some to question whether his acclaim stemmed partly from familial prominence rather than unalloyed merit. Following his death in 2014, retrospectives at venues like the Jerusalem Cinematheque reaffirmed Dayan's status as a , with restored screenings of films such as Life According to Agfa highlighting his role in evolving Israeli narrative cinema. Yet, a truth-oriented evaluation underscores how his self-destructive patterns curtailed fuller realization of talent, contrasting with more disciplined creators whose consistent yielded broader, less compromised legacies; this serves as empirical caution against romanticizing vice as artistic fuel, given its causal drag on productivity evidenced in Dayan's uneven .

References

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