Theodore Bikel

Theodore Meir Bikel ( ; May 2, 1924 – July 21, 2015) was an Austrian-American actor, singer, and political activist.

He made his stage debut in Tevye the Milkman in Mandatory Palestine, where he lived as a teenager. He later studied acting at Britain's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made his London stage debut in 1948 and in New York in 1955. He was also a widely recognized and recorded folk singer and guitarist. In 1959, he co-founded the Newport Folk Festival, and created the role of Captain von Trapp opposite Mary Martin as Maria in the original Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. In 1969, Bikel began acting and singing on stage as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The production won nine Tony Awards, and was one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history.

He also appeared in films, including The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), The Kidnappers (1953), The Enemy Below (1957), I Want to Live! (1958), My Fair Lady (1964), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966), and 200 Motels (1971). For his portrayal of Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones (1958), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Bikel was president of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America until 2014, and was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He served as the chairman of the board of directors of Partners for Zionist Israel, where he also lectured.

Early years Theodore Bikel was born into a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, the son of Miriam (née Riegler) and Josef Bikel, from Bukovina. As an active Zionist, his father named him after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. Following the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Bikel's family fled to Palestine, where his father's contacts helped the family obtain British passports. Bikel studied at the Mikve Yisrael agricultural school and joined Kibbutz Kfar HaMaccabi.

Bikel started acting while in his teens. He performed with Habimah Theatre in 1943, and was one of the founding members of the Cameri Theatre, which became a leading Israeli theatre company. He described his acting experience there as similar to, if not better than, the method acting techniques taught at the Actors Studio in New York. "The Habimah people were much closer to the Method, indeed, than Lee Strasberg was, because they were direct disciples of Stanislavski." Finding work almost immediately, from the mid 40s to the late 50s, Bikel appeared in a slew of British B-movies, and the occasional 'A' film too, usually playing heavies and crooks of various European nationalities despite having perfected his English accent. He played the lead role in 1956 British film drama Flight from Vienna. Despite his success in the UK, the ever-ambitious Bikel travelled to the States in 1954 to pursue his career in the more lucrative Hollywood movie industry and on Broadway, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1961.

Career Actor

In 1948, Michael Redgrave recommended Bikel to his friend Laurence Olivier as understudy for the parts of both Stanley Kowalski and Harold "Mitch" Mitchell in the West End theatre district premiere of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in London. Aside from being an understudy, Bikel's main role in the production was the relatively minor part of Pablo Gonzales. He graduated from supporting actor and understudy, though, to star opposite the director's wife, Vivien Leigh, with a sudden, unplanned performance when a co-star, playing the role of Mitch, came down with a minor illness. Bikel showed up backstage and went directly to Leigh's dressing room to ask if she wanted to rehearse with him, to make sure he was right for the role. She replied that she did not need to: "Go and do it," she said. "You are a professional, and Larry gave you this job because he trusted you to do it well." After the show, Leigh told him, "Well done."

For most of his acting career, he was known for his versatility in playing characters of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds; he claimed he took on those different personalities so his acting would "never get stale". On television, he played an Armenian merchant on Ironside, a Polish professor on Charlie's Angels, a tyrannical American law school professor on The Paper Chase (television version of the earlier feature film The Paper Chase (1973), starring John Houseman as Professor Kingsley), a Bulgarian villain on Falcon Crest, a Belarusian on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and an Italian on Murder, She Wrote. In My Fair Lady (1964), he played the overbearing Hungarian linguist Zoltan Karpathy.

In 1964, he played Zoltan Karpathy, the dialect expert, in the film version of My Fair Lady. Since his first appearance as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1967), Bikel had performed the role more often than any other actor (over 2,000 times). When an injury required 74-year-old fellow Israeli performer Chaim Topol (veteran of many productions of the stage show and star of the later 1967 motion picture version) to withdraw from a high-budget, much-promoted 2009 North American tour of the revival musical, Bikel substituted for him in several appearances in 2010.

Bikel was a guest star on many popular television series in the 1950s (often called the first "Golden Age of Television"). He appeared in an episode of the 1954 NBC legal drama Justice based on cases from the Legal Aid Society of New York. He also appeared in the episode entitled "The Faithful Pilgrimage" of CBS's Appointment with Adventure anthology series. That particular episode was written by Rod Serling. He also appeared in a second episode of Appointment with Adventure entitled "Return of the Stranger". Bikel also appeared in an acting role in Frank Zappa's experimental film 200 Motels (1971).

Bikel continued guest-starring in the following decades of the 1960s and 1970s, beginning on Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (episode "Four O'Clock" as Oliver Crangle). He appeared on episodes of the Western series of Wagon Train, and the World War II drama Combat! in the season-three episode "Mountain Man" as Francois Perrault. He followed these with roles in the police dramas Hawaii Five-O, Columbo (1977, "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case"), Charlie's Angels, The San Pedro Beach Bums, Cannon, and in Little House on the Prairie, and the long-running western series Gunsmoke. Bikel also acted in the international intrigue series Mission: Impossible, the 1980s primetime soap opera Dynasty, the iconic '70s sitcom of All in the Family (1978), and further police/detective dramas in the forms of Knight Rider; Murder, She Wrote; Law & Order; and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1987 episode "Elegy for a Tramp" as Gerringer).

In the early 1990s, he appeared on the science fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the episode "Family", playing Sergey Rozhenko, Worf's Belarusian-born adoptive father. Bikel continued in the sci-fi genre with performing two roles in the Babylon 5 universe, in 1994 as Rabbi Koslov in the first-season episode "TKO" and in 1998, as Ranger leader Lenonn in the TV movie Babylon 5: In the Beginning.

Bikel was nominated for the Drama Desk Award in 2010 for outstanding solo performance for Sholom Aleichem: Laughter Through Tears, an off-Broadway play that he also wrote. In 2012, Bikel played the title role in Visiting Mr. Green with the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto, Canada. In 2013, Bikel starred in Journey 4 Artists, a documentary that celebrates the power of music and religious diversity.

Folk singer and composer In 1955, at the suggestion of Jac Holzman of Elektra Records, Bikel began recording songs, including several albums of Jewish folk songs and songs from Russia and other countries, making over 20 contemporary and folk music albums during his career. For those, he played acoustic guitar alone or accompanied by other musicians. He was able to sing in 21 different languages, including Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, French, medieval Spanish, Zulu, and English. His early albums included Israeli Folk Songs (1955) and Songs of Russian Old & New (1960). During an interview, when asked what inspired him to become involved in organizing a folk festival, he said that music was "one of the few answers to the chaos that we have," one of the only recourses to avoid social strife, and a means of giving youth hope for a better world. In 1963, Bikel joined Dylan, Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Joan Baez for the festival grand finale as they sang "Blowin' in the Wind" and "We Shall Overcome". Originally, only Bikel and Seeger were scheduled to perform, but Bikel wanted Dylan to go with them. He told Dylan's manager, Albert Grossman, "I'll tell you what. Buy him a ticket. Don't tell him where it came from. Tell him it's time to go down and experience the South."

Bikel's close friendship with Seeger was sometimes tested as a result of the Newport festival's choice of performers. On one occasion, Seeger became infuriated during Bob Dylan's legendary 1965 performance accompanied by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Seeger expected Bikel to support him: "Theo, for Chrissake—tell them. Set them straight!" Bikel, as well as Seeger, was shocked when Bob Dylan turned electric at the festival, an event some call "Dylan's declaration of musical independence", but Bikel stepped forward and told Seeger, "Peter, this band, these rebels—they are us. They are what we were 20 years ago. Remember?" Seeger stared at him "like a trauma victim", as Bikel succeeded in calming Seeger down enough to let the group finish their songs.

His album A Folksinger's Choice (1964) featured Jim McGuinn (as he was then known) on banjo.

Personal life alt=Photograph of Bickel t Washington D.C. Kennedy Center as an Honoree, 2002

Bikel was married four times. He married Ofra Ichilov in 1952. They divorced the following year. His second marriage was in 1967 to Rita Weinberg Call, with whom he had two children. They divorced in 2008. He married conductor Tamara Brooks later that year. She died in 2012. He married journalist and foreign correspondent Aimee Ginsburg on December 29, 2013.

Upon hearing of his death, Actors’ Equity wrote: "From the time he joined Equity in 1954, Bikel has been an advocate for the members of our union and his extraordinary achievements paved the way for so many. No one loved theater more, his union better, or cherished actors like Theo did. He has left an indelible mark on generations of members past and generations of members to come. We thank you, Theo, for all you have done."

In 1968, Bikel supported the presidential campaign of Eugene McCarthy and attended the 1968 Democratic National Convention after being elected as a pro-McCarthy delegate in New York.

At the 1977 AFL–CIO Convention, Bikel welcomed Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky upon his release from the Soviet Union. He was arrested in front of the Soviet Embassy in Washington in 1986 while protesting the plight of Soviet Jews. In 2007, he served as chair of the board of directors of Meretz USA (now Partners for Progressive Israel).

Death

Bikel died on July 21, 2015, at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles of natural causes, according to publicist Harlan Boll, survived by Aimee Ginsburg, his sons from his second marriage, Robert and Daniel, and three grandchildren. 1997 – Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture 2005 – Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6233 Hollywood Blvd.) 2008 – Golden Rathausmann of Vienna (November 27) 2009 – Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (November 15) 2014 – Lifetime Achievement Award from Rhode Island International Film Festival (August)

Discography

Folk Songs of Israel (1955), Elektra An Actor's Holiday (1956), Elektra Folk Songs from Just About Everywhere (with Geula Gill) (1959), Elektra Bravo Bikel (Town Hall Concert) (1959), Elektra From Bondage to Freedom (1961), Elektra Yiddish Theatre and Folk Songs (1965), Elektra Silent No More (Soviet Jewish Underground) (1972), Star Records Theodore Bikel Sings Jewish Holiday Songs (1987) A Passover Story (1991), Western Wind A Chanukkah Story (1992), Western Wind Theodore Bikel Sings Jewish Folk Songs (CD reissue, 1992), Bainbridge Records Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories (1996), Macmillan audio A Taste of Passover (1998), Rounder Records Classic Jewish Holiday & Shabbat Songs (2000), Sameach Records Theodore Bikel's Treasury of Yiddish Folk & Theatre Songs (2004), Rhino Handmade

Filmography

Television + Theodore Bikel television credits Year Title Role Notes 1947 The Cherry Orchard TV movie 1953 Johnny, You're Wanted Ferrari TV miniseries 1954 The Philco Television Playhouse Episode: "The King and Mrs. Candle"1955 The Elgin Hour Mr. Wu Episode: "San Francisco Fracas"Studio One in Hollywood Machek Episode: "Passage of Arms" Julius Caesar Episode: "Julius Casar" Armstrong Circle Theatre Episode: "Perilous Night" Star Tonight Episode: "Footfalls" Appointment with Adventure Richter 2 episodes Producers' Showcase Episode: "The King and Mrs. Candle" Strange Experiences Man Episode: "Portrait of Paula" Justice Episode: "Track of Fear" Goodyear Television Playhouse Paul Laurent Episode: "Visit to a Small Planet"The United States Steel Hour Fritz Gerhardy Episode: "Scandal at Peppernut"1956 Grigor Dimitorski Episode: "Hunted" The Alcoa Hour Il Vecchio Episode: "A Patch of Faith" Studio One in Hollywood Grossman Episode: "The Power"1957 Climax! Martin Humphries Episode: "The Mad Bomber" Alfred Hitchcock Presents Sergeant Ottermole Season 2 Episode 32: "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole" Studio One in Hollywood Henri Blanchard Episode: "Death and Taxes" There Shall Be No Night Uncle Vlahos TV movie1958 DuPont Show of the Month Episode: "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" Playhouse 90 Rapp Episode: "Word from a Sealed-Off Box" Folio Barbaso Episode: "The Hostage" 1959 Hotel de Paree Carmoody Episode: "Sundance Returns"1960 The Play of the Week Sender Episode: "The Dybbuk" Directions Host Episode: "Footnotes to Jewish Music" 1961Naked City Nicholas Rozinski Episode: "Murder Is a Face I Know"1962 Dr. Stanley Wilford Episode: "Portrait of a Painter" Wagon Train Dr. Denker Episode: "The Dr. Denker Story" The Twilight Zone Oliver Crangle Episode: "Four O'Clock"The Dick Powell Show Captain Bellini Episode: "The Prison" Nicholas Simonakis Episode: "Pericles on 31st Street" General Electric Theater Rabbi Halevy Episode: "The Bar Mitzvah of Major Orlovsky" Dr. Kildare Dr. Mahmel Homatka Episode: "The Visitors" Route 66 Dr. Anton Koseloff Episode: "Only by Cunning Glimpses" Sam Benedict Neil Bonney Episode: "So Various, So Beautiful" Alcoa Premiere Stefan Tamarow Episode: "The Potentate"1963 The DuPont Show of the Week Diamond Cutter – Herbert Vanderling Episode: "Diamond Fever" East Side/West Side George Everett, Sr. Episode: "No Wings at All" Theatre of Stars Ralph Traven Episode: "Corridor 400"1964 The Doctors and the Nurses Dr. Kralik Episode: "The Forever Child" Combat! Francois Perrault Episode: "Mountain Man" Rawhide Pence Episode: "Canliss"Burke's Law Vic Bates Episode: "Who Killed the Surf Board?"1965 Senor Manfred Gonzales Episode: "Who Killed the Rest?" Gunsmoke Martin Kellums Episode: "Song for Dying" The Trials of O'Brien Ben Moravian Episode: "The Trouble with Archie" Who Has Seen the Wind? Josef Radek TV movie 1966 ABC Stage 67 Homer T. Hatch Episode: "Noon Wine"1967 The Diary of Anne Frank Hans Van Daan TV movie Saint Joan Robert de Baudricourt TV movie 1968 Mission: Impossible General Casimir Zepke Episode: "The Cardinal" 1969 Hawaii Five-O Professor Erich Stoss Episode: "Sweet Terror" 1971 Ironside Arschag Divinian Episode: "The Summer Soldier"1972 Cannon Mike Tampa Episode: "Blood on the Vine" Killer by Night Sergeant. Phl 'Sharkey' Gold TV movie 1973 The Mod Squad Max Kalatsis Episode: "Cry Uncle"1975 Medical Story Danzinger Episode: "Us Against the World" Murder on Flight 502 Otto Gruenwaldt TV movie1976 Victory at Entebbe Yakov Shlomo TV movie Calling Dr. Gannon Joseph Zankov Episode: "A Very Private War" Ellery Queen Sergio Vargo Episode: "The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman" Little House on the Prairie Yuli Pyatakov Episode: "Centennial"1977 Charlie's Angels Professor Peter Wycinski Episode: "Angels on a String" Columbo Oliver Brandt Episode: "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case" Testimony of Two Men Peter Hegger TV miniseries The San Pedro Beach Bums Rashid Episode: "Godfather's Five"1978 Police Woman Adamus Tarash Episode: "Sons" Loose Change Tom Feiffer TV miniseries The Amazing Spider-Man Mandak Episode: "The Curse of Rava" Fantasy Island Ambassador Eric Soro Episode: "King for a Day/Instant Family" All in the Family Albrecht 'Alvin' Klemmer 2 episodes The Stingiest Man in Town Marley's Ghost (voice) TV movie 1980 The Return of the King Aragorn (voice) TV movie 1982 Trapper John, M.D. Vladimir Lopatkin Episode: "Russians and Ruses" 1983 Knight Rider Graham Deauville Episode: "Chariot of Gold" 1984 Glitter Episode: "On Your Toes"1985 Hotel Constantin Markos Episode: "New Beginnings" Cover Up Assad Episode: "Rules to Die By" The Fall Guy Kamal Episode: "Reel Trouble" Hell Town Episode: "Fast Louie" Dynasty Warnick 4 episodes 1986 The Paper Chase Professor George Ballard Episode: "Suppressed Desires"1987 The New Mike Hammer Russell Garringer Episode: "Elegy for a Tramp" Murder, She Wrote Professor Harold Crenshaw Episode: "Indian Giver" 1987–1988 Falcon Crest Marin Dimitrov Recurring role1988 A Stoning in Fulham County Abe Moser TV movie Buck James Episode: "Almost Perfect" Beauty and the Beast Eli Episode: "Chamber Music" The Equalizer Voorhees Episode: "Day of the Covenant"1989 Christine Cromwell Horace 3 episodes Murder, She Wrote Rosanno Bertolucci Episode: "When the Fat Lady Sings" The Final Days Henry Kissinger TV movie1990 City Dr. Calagari Episode: "You Can't Bite City Hall" Star Trek: The Next Generation CPO Sergey Rozhenko Episode: "Family"1991 The New Lassie Scotty MacPherson Episode: "The Gathering of the Clans" Memories of Midnight Napoleon Chotas TV miniseries Murder, She Wrote Yuri Lermentov Episode: "The List of Yuri Lermentov" 1992 L.A. Law Kurt Rubin Episode: "Great Balls Afire"1994 Law & Order Sol Bregman Episode: "Snatched" Babylon 5 Rabbi Koslov Episode: "TKO" Murder, She Wrote Inspector Van Horn Episode: "Amsterdam Kill" 1996 The Burning Zone Old Priest Episode: "St. Michael's Nightmare"1997 Brooklyn South Solomon Shuyler Episode: "Why Can't Even a Couple of Us Get Along?" Michael Hayes Episode: "Death and Taxes"1998 Babylon 5: In the Beginning Lenonn TV movie The Pretender Martin Zeller/Dr. Werner Krieg Episode: "Hazards" 2000 H.U.D. Ambassador Bjorn Jorgenson TV movie 2003 JAG Farmer with Plane Episode: "A Tangled Webb: Part 1"

Books