Theodore Bikel

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Theodore Meir Bikel (bh-KEL; May 2, 1924 to July 21, 2015) was an Austrian-American actor, folk singer, guitarist, conductor, feminist, and international activist.

He appeared in films including The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), The Enemy Below (1957), I Want to Live! (1958) My Fair Lady (1964), The Russians Are Coming (1966), and 200 Motels (1971).

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Tevye the Milkman (1958), and was the first actor to appear in Tel Aviv, Israel, when he was a youth.

He then studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the United Kingdom and made his London debut in 1948 and in 1955 in New York.

He was also a well-known and recording folk singer and guitarist.

He co-founded the Newport Folk Festival and starred Captain von Trapp opposite Mary Martin in Rodgers & Hammerstein's original Broadway revival of The Sound of Music.

Bikel started appearing and singing on stage as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof in 1969, a role in which he appeared more often than any other actor to date.

The show received nine Tony Awards and was one of Broadway's longest-running musicals ever produced. Bikel was president of Associated Actors and Artists of America from 2014 to 2014, and Actors' Equity was president in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He served as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Progressive 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 of Bukovina. His father named him after Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism. Bikel's family fled to Mandatory Palestine, where his father's contacts helped the family obtain British passports following the German annexation of Austria in 1938. Bikel attended the Mikve Yisrael agricultural school before joining Kibbutz Kfar HaMaccabi.

Bikel started behaving as a youth. He appeared at Habimah Theatre in 1943 and was one of the founding members of the Cameri Theatre, which later became Israel's biggest theatre company. He described his acting experience at the Actors Studio in New York as being 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 than Lee Strasberg, who were his direct followers of Stanislavski."

In 1945, he came to London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Bikel appeared in a slew of British B-movies and the occasional 'A' film, mainly playing heavies and crooks of various European nationalities, despite having perfected his English accent. In 1956 English film drama 'Flight from Vienna,' he was the lead actor. Despite his success in the United Kingdom, the ever-ambitious Bikel travelled to the United States in 1954 to pursue his career in the more lucrative Hollywood film industry and Broadway, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1961.

Bikel did not return to Israel, nor did he participate in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. "Not returning to Israel] was regarded by a few of my associates as a character flaw, if not a deceitful act of defiance," Bikel wrote in his autobiography. In me, there remains a small, still voice that asks if I could ever fully acquit myself in my own mind.

Personal life

Bikel was married four times. He married Ofra Ichilov in 1942. The following year, they separated. Rita Weinberg Call, who had two children, was his second marriage in 1967. In 2008, they divorced. Later that year, he married conductor Tamara Brooks. She died in 2012. On December 29, 2013, he married journalist and foreign correspondent Aimee Ginsburg.

Bikel, a long-served activist and human rights activist who appeared as a fundraiser with appearances, was a long-serve activist on the civil rights and human rights movements. He co-founded the Actors Federal Credit Union in 1962, and in 1968, he was delegated to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He served as president of Actors' Equity from 1977 to 1982, in which office he defended human rights causes. He had been president of the Associated Actors and Artists of America since 1988.

"From the time he joined Equity in 1954, Bikel has been an advocate for the members of our union, and his life has paved the way for so many others." No one loved theater more, his union was more effective, or adored actors as Theo did. He has left an indelible mark on generations of members of the past and generations of members to come. We thank you, Theo, for all you have done."

John F. Kennedy's bikel was a tireless promoter and advocate for him. During the run of The Sound of Music, he did some of his fundraising, putting him in jeopardy with the producers, who did not think it was becoming for an actor. "I would go out sometime between matinee and evening performances, go to a rally and speak from a flat-bed truck, and then return to the theater." However, the producers stopped ranting after one show was picked up backstage by a limousine carrying Eleanor Roosevelt, and he accompanied her to a Democratic rally as her special guest.

Bikel greeted Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky upon his release from the Soviet Union at the 1977 AFL-CIO Convention. He was arrested in front of the Soviet Embassy in Washington in 1986 while protesting the plight of Soviet Jews.

President Jimmy Carter nominated him to serve on the National Council of the Arts in 1977 for a six-year term. He served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA (now Partners for Progressive Israel) in 2007.

He was a member of the Mensa International high-IQ group.

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Career

In 1948, Michael Redgrave recommended Bikel to his friend Laurence Olivier as understudy for the roles of Stanley Kowalski and Harold "Mitch" Mitchell in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire's West End premiere. Bikel's main role in the production was the relatively minor role of Pablo Gonzales, other than being an understudy. He went from supporting actor and understudiey to actor opposite the director's wife, Vivien Leigh, in a sudden, unplanned appearance when a co-star, playing Mitch, fell sick with a case of flu. Bikel appeared backstage and proceeded to Leigh's dressing room to inquire if she wanted to rehearse with him to ensure he was right for the role. She replied that she didn't have to: "Go and do it," she said. "You're a professional, and Larry gave you this job because he trusted you to do it well." Leigh told him, "Well done" after the show.

He was known for his versatility in portraying characters of various nationalities for the bulk of his acting career; he said he assumed those diverse personalities so that his acting would never get stale." He played an Armenian merchant on Ironside, a Polish professor on Charlie's Angels, a Bulgarian tyrant on Falcon Crest, a Belarusian on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and an Italian on Murder, She Wrote.

He starred in movies as a German officer in The African Queen (1951), and The Enemy Below (1957), a Southern sheriff in The Defiant Ones, and a Russian submarine captain in the film The Russians Are Coming (1966). He portrayed the tragic General Jouvet in The Pride and the Passion (1957) and was screen tested for Auric Goldfinger's role in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964), but the role ultimately fell to German actor Gert Fröbe. He portrayed overbearing Hungarian linguist Zoltan Karpathy in My Fair Lady (1964).

In 1955, he made his Broadway debut in Tonight in Samarkand, and in 1958 was nominated for a Tony for The Rope Dancers. He played Captain von Trapp in the first production of The Sound of Music, earning him his second Tony nomination. Bikel did not like his job because his ability to sing was underutilized; nor did he like performing the captain's duties regularly. "Edelweiss" was written by the composers and Hammerstein as a result of Bikel's popularity, they created the song "Edelweiss" specifically for him to sing and accompany himself on the guitar.

In the film version of My Fair Lady, he played Zoltan Karpathy, the dialect specialist. Bikel appeared in the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1967), more often than any other actor (more than 2,000 times). When an injury prompted Chaim Topol (veteran of several productions of the stage show Fiddler on the Roof) to pull from a high-budget, much-promoted 2009 North American tour of the musical, Bikel substituted him for him in many appearances in 2010.

Bikel appeared in many popular television shows. He appeared in an episode of the NBC legal drama Justice based on facts obtained by the Legal Aid Society of New York. He appeared in CBS's Appointment with Adventure anthology series "The Faithful Pilgrimage." Rod Serling wrote this particular episode. In addition, he appeared in "Return of the Stranger" in Appointment with Adventure's second episode. Bikel also appeared in Frank Zappa's experimental film 200 Motels (1971).

Bikel appeared on Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone later in life (episode "Four O'Clock" as Oliver Crangle). He appeared on episodes of Wagon Train, Combat! Francois Perrault, Hawaii Five-O, Columbo (1977), "The Bye Sky High I.Q.," in the season three episode "Mountain Man." Charlie's Angels, The San Pedro Beach Bums, Cannon, Little House on the Prairie is a newspaper that published information about the crime. The Impossible, Gunsmoke, Dynasty, The Prophet, Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order, and Mick Spillane's Mike Hammer - "Elegy for a Tramp" as the Gerringer was on January 28, 1987) are among the victims.

He appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation in the episode "Family" portraying Sergey Rozhenko, Worf's Belarusian-born adoptive father. In 1994, Bikel appeared in two roles in the Babylon 5 universe, including Rabbi Koslov in the first-season episode "TKO" and Lenonn in the television film Babylon 5: In the Beginning.

In 2010, Bikel was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for his outstanding solo performance for Sholom Aleichem's Laughter Through Tears, an off-Broadway play that he also wrote. Bikel appeared in Visiting Mr. Green with the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company in Toronto, Ontario, in 2012. Bikel appeared in Journey 4 Artists, a film that celebrates music's popularity and religious plurality in 2013.

Bikel began recording songs in 1955, including several albums of Jewish folk songs and songs from Russia and other countries, as well as several albums of modern and folk music from other countries, earning over 20 contemporary and folk music albums during his lifetime. For those that were accompanied by other performers, he played acoustic guitar alone or with others. He was able to sing in 21 different languages, including Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Russian, Hungarian, Romanian, Romanian, Romanian, Romanian, French, medieval Spanish, Zulu, and English. His early albums, Israeli Folk Songs (1955) and Songs of Russian Old & New (1960), were among his favorites. Bikel's live performances were released on two albums: Bravo Bikel (1959) and Bikel on Tour (1963).

Bikel co-founded the Newport Folk Festival in 1959 (along with Pete Seeger, Harold Leventhal, Oscar Brand, and George Wein). He appeared at a number of festivals and on television as part of a live duet with Judy Collins. In an interview, when asked what inspired him to host a folk festival, he said that music was "one of the few answers to the chaos we have," one of the few alternatives to avoid social strife and a way to bring youth hope for a better future.

Bob Dylan, a 21-year-old boy, was one of those young entertainers who were expressing emotional and social messages through song, according to Bikel. "We Shall Overcome" and Dylan, Seeger, Peter, Paul, and Mary for the festival grand finale in 1963. Bikel, Seeger, and Dylan all went to a planned rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, to perform Dylan's recently written poem "Only a Pawn in Their Game," about the man who murdered Medgar Evers. Only Bikel and Seeger had been supposed to appear, but Bikel wanted Dylan to go with them. "I'll tell you what." Dylan's boss, Albert Grossman, told him, "I'll tell you what." Buy him a ticket. Don't tell him where it came from. "It's time to go down and experience the South," says the narrator.

As a result of the Newport festival's choice of performers, Bikel's close friendship with Seeger was occasionally tested. Seeger was enraged on one occasion by Bob Dylan's legendary 1965 appearance accompanied by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. "Theo, for Chrissake," the seeger begged to help him.

Set them straight!"

"Peter, this band, these rebels, these zealots," Bikel stepped forward and told Seeger, "We are us." They are what we were 20 years ago.

Remember?"

When Bikel managed to calm Seeger enough to allow the group to finish their songs, Seeger looked at him "as a trauma survivor." Bikel, as well as Seeger, was stunned when Bob Dylan went electric at the festival, an event that some refer to as "Dylan's declaration of musical independence."

Bikel became the first performer outside of Dylan to perform "Blowin' in the Wind" in public in 1962. Jim McGuinn appeared on Banjo on his album A Folksinger's Choice (1964) (as he was then unknown). Bikel and his business partner, Herb Cohen, opened the first folk music coffee house in Los Angeles, The Unicorn. The two clubs' opening, Cosmo Alley, which, in addition to folk music, welcomed writers like Maya Angelou and Lenny Bruce. Bikel became more involved with civil rights and progressive causes, and he was a Eugene McCarthy delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention.

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