Photo: Louise Palanker / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Fred Melamed is my favorite kind of performer: the voice you've heard a thousand times before you ever learn the face. Decades of voiceover work and seven Woody Allen films built a quiet foundation, and then Sy Ableman in A Serious Man let that velvety, faintly menacing calm finally take center stage. I love that the breakthrough came in his fifties. There's something deeply satisfying about a craftsman who pays his dues for years and then arrives fully formed. He's a character actor's character actor, and I think he deserves a lot more credit than he gets.
Overview
Fred Melamed (born May 13, 1956) is an American actor. After spending most of his early career primarily as a voice over artist, and occasionally playing small roles in films, including in seven films directed by Woody Allen, he established himself as a major character actor with his role as Sy Ableman in the Coen brothers' A Serious Man (2009). Other film credits have included In a World...
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Fred Melamed
- Name (Japanese)
- フレッド・メラメッド
- Reading
- ふれっど・めらめっど
- Born
- May 13, 1956 (age 70)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Monkey
- Origin
- New York City, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / television actor / film actor / voice actor / stage actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Hollywood Hills High School
- University
- Hampshire College
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Television actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.