Gila Almagor (Hebrew: גילה אלמגור‎; born Gila Alexandrowitz; July 22, 1939) is an Israeli actress, film star, and author. In Israel she is known as "queen of the Israeli cinema and theatre".

Biography

Gila Almagor was born four months after the death of her father, Max Alexandrowitz, a Jewish immigrant from Germany who was killed by an Arab sniper while working as a policeman in Haifa. Almagor grew up caring for her mother, Chaya, who was slowly losing her sanity after realising that all her family in Germany had perished in the Holocaust. When her mother was institutionalized in 1954, Almagor was sent to Hadassim youth village.

Two years later, she moved to Tel Aviv, rented a room near Habima Theatre and applied to acting school. Although she was underage, she was accepted.

At the age of 17, Almagor debuted in Habima's production of The Skin of Our Teeth. Her autobiographical books Summer of Aviya and Under the Domim Tree were both made into films, with Almagor playing her own mother. She is married to Yaakov Agmon, former director of the Habima Theatre. They have two children.