Paul Rudd is a screenwriter and actor famous for his funny roles. He was born in 1969 and raised in Kansas, where he graduated from the University of Kansas.
He made his acting debut with the television drama Sisters in 1992, where he acted as Kirby Quimby Philby. He left the show in 1995 to perform in Clueless, which propelled him to stardom. He had also made numerous appearances on Broadway, like when he performed in The Last Night of Ballyhoo.
In 2006, he acted in Three Days of Rai, and in 2012 he starred in a Broadway play, Grace. In 2015, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
RECOMMENDED
How did Paul Rudd Meet Julie Yaeger?
Since then, he has appeared in many movies with several stars. In 2021, he was named the Sexiest Man Alive by People Magazine. Ever since he first appeared on the big screen, fans have never had enough of his rugged appeal.
Despite taking up roles that range from silly to unhinged, it is hard to put up a serious face when one thinks of the actor. Many people refer to him as Hollywood’s Mr. Nice Guy, and some have always questioned his religion.
His grandparents were Jewish. Before settling down in London, they were immigrants who went to various places like Belarus, Poland, and Russia. He once revealed during an interview, “Oh yeah, I went to synagogue. I know what it’s like to look for matzoh. I know the culture, and I know the food. I know what a Haggadah is!”
The actor’s last name was changed when the family migrated from Europe, a trend that was common with Jewish families then. Their initial name was Rudnitsky, but his grandfather changed it to Rudd.
His mom’s name was changed to Granville from Goldstein. The actor confessed that he was not attached to the religion, but he went through some antisemitism while growing up in Kansas and Missouri.
He Was ‘Bar Mitzvah-ed’ Reform
His Bar Mitzvah was performed in Ontario since he felt his family was in Ontario, and it would be unfair to drag them to Kansas City.
He confessed, “I always felt a little bit like an outsider [growing up Jewish in the Bible Belt] not only because I was Jewish, but because my parents are European. I didn’t go to a school where there were a bunch of Jewish kids, and I realized growing up that my way of not getting beaten up was to try and make people laugh — and to deal with any kind of trauma was to make people laugh.”
” That’s still at work; it’s still very much part of my psyche. I did kind of realize at a young age that if I made Jewish jokes about myself, a lot of kids in my school would laugh harder than other stuff. I never quite realized that maybe that was a little messed up.” He further stated, “My whole family is Jewish; my wife, Julie, is Jewish – there isn’t anyone in my family who isn’t Jewish. I was Bar Mitzvah-ed Reform, we were pretty laid back, but it’s like, oh yeah, I went to synagogue.”
He Has Acted as Jewish Various TImes
The actor has also acted as a Jew in movies like Moe Berg. His other big role as a Jewish was when he starred as Dr. Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf in The Shrink Next Door series, which premiered in 2019.
It concentrates on a Jewish psychiatrist who is a New York Jewish community member. He decides to adopt the life of one of his Jewish patients.
