Zachi Noy צחי נוי

Zachi Noy was born on July 8th, 1953 in Haifa, Israel. As a child he dreamed of becoming an actor and joined the Children’s Haifa Theater workshop, first perfoming at the age of 12. During his service in the army, Zachi served as part of the military band entertaining the troupes and teamed up with Eli Gorenstein.

Zachi made his film debut in The Garden starring a young Melanie Griffith as a beautiful tourist who wanders into a garden under the threat of urbanisation, dazed and naked after a sexual assault, and is mistaken as an angel.

The film may have been forgetable but Zachi’s performace was noted by the makers of the then forthcoming movie, Lemon Popsicle, and he was quickly cast as Huey (Yudale) without an screen test. A role which he would become identifed with throughout his career and the only star to participate in all the Popsicle movies and spin-off’s.

Playing Huey was bittersweet for Zachi, as on the one hand it brought him great success but wasn’t a very pleasant acting experience for the young bulky star who felt uncomfortable baring all on the big screen. However, being the professional actor, Zachi got on with the job and appeared in the sequel Going Steady a year later.

In 1979’s The Magician of Lublin, produced by Golan and Globus and adapted from a story of Yitzhak Bashevis Zinger, Zachi gave a more dramatic performance as Bolek, playing alongside American actors Alan Arkin and Shelly Winters.

With his growing popularity in Germany, Zachi moved to the country and starred in a number of sex comedies including Popcorn und Himbeereis, Arabische Nächte, Heiße Kartoffeln, with future Popsicle co-stars Dolly Dollar, Bea Fiedler, and Sybille Rauch.

In the early 1980’s he returned to the Popsicle movies for Hot Bubblegum, Private Popsicle, and it’s spin off, Private Manoeuvres. While under contract with Golan-Globus’ Cannon Films, he also made appearances in the international features Enter The Ninja and The Ambassador.

By the late 80’s , after appearing in more than seven Lemon Popsicle sequels, Zachi worked with director Reinhard Schwabenitzky for the story of the 8th in the film series, Summertime Blues. The now mature actors were no longer the young boys of the 1977 film and Zachi’s story put him, Jonathan Sagall and co-star Elfi Escke centre stage, with Yiftach Katzur (Benji) playing a more supporting role than in previous films.

Since leaving the Popsicle days behind, Zachi Noy was able to shift his career around and turned into a successful children’s star in Israel, appearing in a slew of musicals throughout the years, including children’s favourites Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and as the cowardly lion in The Wizard.

Having been married for more than twenty years, Zachi is now the happy family man with two grown up children. He briefly returned to the Lemon Popsicle movies in 2001 for ‘The Party Goes‘ in which he played the owner of The Montana, the local diner promently featured in most of the Popsicle films. A new cast was selected to play the leading roles, with actor/singer Niki Goldstien resurrecting the role that made Zachi a star. The proposed project was originally meant as a television series, but instead was turned into a feature film, much to the disappointment of Zachi.

Zachi continues to make both television and film appearances in Israel and Germany. He was recently a housemate on the Germany’s Big Brother.