Theodore Bikel is 90 years old today. A character actor, folk singer and musician, Bikel 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, where he also lectures. His autobiography, Theo, was published in 1995. Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Miriam (née Riegler) and Josef Bikel from Bukovina. Being active in Zionism, his father named him after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. Following the Nazi occupation of Austria, Bikels family fled to Palestine, where his fathers contacts helped the family obtain British passports. Bikel started acting while in his teens. He co-founded the Cameri Theatre there—which has gone on to become one of Israels biggest theaters—before he moved to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1945. 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. Bikel graduated from understudy to star opposite the directors wife, Vivien Leigh, who would go on to recreate her role as Blanche DuBois in the film version opposite Marlon Brando. 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 screen test can be seen on the Ultimate Edition DVD released in 2006. Bikel also appeared in Frank Zappas 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 repeatedly the same role of the Captain. 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 had scheduled appearances in the musical beyond his 86th birthday in May of that year. 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, Oscar Brand and and George Wein) in 1959. In 1962, Bikel became the first singer besides Dylan to perform Blowin in the Wind 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. Here, Bikel joins Judy Collins in performing “Sweeter Than Wine” in 1963.
Posted on: Fri, 02 May 2014 04:45:04 +0000
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