Theodore Meir Bikel (born May 2, 1924) is a character actor, folk singer and musician. He made his film debut in The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for an Academy award for his supporting role as Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones (1958).

Bikel is President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America and was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA^[2], where he also lectures. His autobiography, Theo, was published in 1995.

Early years

Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Miriam (née Riegler) and Josef Bikel from Bukovina.^[3] Following the Nazi occupation of Austria, Bikel's family fled to the British Mandate for Palestine, where Bikel started acting while in his teens. He co-founded the Cameri Theatre there—which has gone on to become one of Israel's biggest theaters—before moving to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1945.^[4] In 1948, Michael Redgrave recommended Bikel to his friend Laurence Olivier as understudy for the parts of both Stanley Kowalski and Mitch in the West End premiere of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.^[5] Bikel graduated from understudy to star opposite the director's wife, Vivien Leigh, who would go on to recreate her role as Blanche DuBois in the film version opposite Marlon Brando.

Acting career

After several plays and films in Europe, Bikel moved to the United States in 1954, and became a naturalized citizen in 1961. He was the U-boat first officer to Curt Jürgens in The Enemy Below (1957) and played the captain of the Russian submarine in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). He also portrayed the sadistic General Jouvet in The Pride and the Passion (1957) Bikel was screentested for the role of Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). The screentest can be seen on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD released in 2006. Bikel also appeared in Frank Zappa's 1971 film 200 Motels.

On Broadway he originated the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1959, for which he received his second Tony nomination. Bikel did not like his role in "Sound of Music" because his ability to sing was limited in the play, and he did not like to perform the same role of the Captain repeatedly. 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 in 1967, Bikel has performed the role more often than any other actor (more than 2,000 times to date). When an injury required 74 year old fellow Israeli performer Chaim Topol (veteran of many productions of the stage show and star of the motion picture of Fiddler on the Roof) to withdraw from a high-budget, much-promoted 2009 North American tour of the musical, Bikel substituted for him in several Canadian appearances, including Calgary in January 2010, and has scheduled appearances in the musical beyond his 86th birthday in May.^[6]

In the 1950s, Bikel produced and sang in several albums of Jewish folk songs, as well as Songs of a Russian Gypsy, in 1958. He was a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival (together with Pete Seeger and George Wein) in 1959. In 1962, he heard Bob Dylan give his premiere performance of "Blowin' in the Wind". Bikel then went to his scheduled performance and became the first singer besides Dylan to perform the song in public. Bikel (with business partner Herb Cohen) opened the first folk music coffeehouse in Los Angeles, The Unicorn. Its popularity led to the two opening a second club, Cosmo Alley, which in addition to folk music presented poets such as Maya Angelou and comics including Lenny Bruce. Bikel became increasingly involved with civil rights issues and progressive causes, and was a delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention.^[7]

In addition to scores of appearances on film and on the stage, Bikel was a guest star on many popular television shows. He appeared in an episode of the 1954 NBC legal drama Justice based on cases from the Legal Aid Society of New York.^[8] He also appeared in the episode entitled "The Faithful Pilgrimage" of CBS's Appointment with Adventure anthology series. The particular episode was written by Rod Serling. He also appeared in a second episode of Appointment with Adventure entitled "Return of the Stranger."

Later, Bikel guest starred on Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (episode "Four O'Clock" as Oliver Crangle). He appeared on episodes of Wagon Train, Hawaii Five-O, Columbo, Charlie's Angels, Little House on the Prairie, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Dynasty, "All in the Family, Knight Rider, and Law & Order. He appeared on the game show Super Password as a celebrity guest in 1988.

In the early 1990s, he appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the episode "Family", playing Sergey Rozhenko, the Russian-born adopted father of Worf, who, as a petty officer on the Starfleet vessel Intrepid, had found Worf at the site of the Khitomer Massacre and taken him home to raise as his son. Bikel performed two roles in the Babylon 5 universe. In 1994 he portrayed Rabbi Koslov in the first season episode "TKO". In 1998 he appeared in the TV movie Babylon 5: In the Beginning as Anla'Shok leader Lenonn.

Actors' unions and charities: Leadership

Bikel is President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America. He was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which office he supported human rights. At the 1977 AFL–CIO Convention, Bikel welcomed the Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky upon his release from the Soviet Union.^[1] U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on the National Council for the Arts in 1977 for a six-year term. ^{[citation needed]}

On January 28, 2007, he agreed to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA, where he also lectures.

His autobiography, Theo, was published in 1995 by Harper Collins, and re-issued in an updated version by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2002. He is a member of the High IQ collective Mensa International.^[9]

Marriage

Bikel married his third wife, conductor Tamara Brooks, in 2008.

Discography

• Songs of a Russian Gypsy (1958)
• Songs of Russia Old & New (1960)
• A Folksinger's Choice (1964)
• Songs of the Earth (1967)
• A New Day (1969)
• 'Folk Songs From Just About Everywhere' (1958)

Filmography

References

External links

• Theodore Bikel at IMDb
• Theodore Bikel at AllMovie
• Theodore Bikel at Memory Alpha
• Theodore Bikel Official website
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• Theodore Bikel at the Internet Accuracy Project.
• Theodore Bikel: "In der Mariahilferstraße hatten wir Nachbarn, die waren sehr nette und anständige Menschen". In: Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta (eds.): Aufbruch ins Ungewisse. Österreichische Filmschaffende in der Emigration vor 1945. Vienna: Wespennest, 1993.

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