User:Benjaminlincoln/Fred Melamed

Fred Melamed is an American actor and writer, most widely known for his portrayal of "sensitive" villain Sy Ableman, in Joel and Ethan Coen's 2009 award-winning film, A Serious Man. About that character, Film Confessional said, "Sy Abelman is as great a contemporary movie villain as The Joker, Hans Landa, or Anton Chigirh. Actually, considering his air of righteously impenetrable amiability, he just might be more potent an evil force than any of the aforementioned movie baddies. Through physical affection, his sugary-sweet dulcet vocalizations, and condescending predisposition, the character Fred Melamed contrives is the year’s most amicable force of destruction."

For his performance in A Serious Man, New York Magazine listed Melamed's work as among the Best Performances of 2009, and Empire called Sy Ableman "One of The Best Alternative Coen Characters of All Time". In addition, Melamed has appeared in a host of Woody Allen films, Including Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Shadows and Fog, Husbands and Wives, and Hollywood Ending.