[1] Born in Jerusalem, his father was a construction worker and his mother, who was the granddaughter of Shlomo Elyashiv, was a nurse at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

From 1949 onwards, Bar-Shavit acted in many Habima plays, which includes Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Peer Gynt, Kazablan, Irma La Douce, Richard III and many more.

[3] For a number of years, Bar-Shavit was on the Habima's management team and served as an artistic director and in 1999, he directed a theatrical adaptation of The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

From 2009 until 2011, he had a recurring role as the father of the central protagonist in the television series Polishuk and he appeared in the season 9 episode premiere of Life is Not Everything.

On 8 September 2019, Bar-Shavit died in Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center from complications of pneumonia at the age of 90.