Everything about Theodore Bikel totally explained
Theodor Meir Bikel (born
May 2 1924,
Vienna,
Austria) is an
Academy Award- and
Tony Award-nominated
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 role as the Southern Sheriff in
The Defiant Ones (1958).
Biography
Bikel started acting as a teenager in
Israel, and began a
small theater there before moving to
London to attend the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After several plays and films in Europe, he moved to the United States in 1954.
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).
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. 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 (2094 times to date). 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.
In the 1950s, Thedore 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 1961. 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 partner Herb Cohen) opened the first folk music coffeehouse in L.A., 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 also appeared in
Frank Zappa's film
200 Motels.
In addition to scores of appearances on film and on the stage, Bikel was a guest star on many popular television shows since the 1960s, including
The Twilight Zone,
Columbo,
Charlie's Angels,
Dynasty,
Little House on the Prairie and
Law & Order. He appeared on the game show
Super Password as a celebrity guest in 1988.
In the early 1990s, he appeared on, 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. The first was as Rabbi Koslov in the first season episode
TKO. He later appeared in the TV movie, as
Anla'Shok leader Lenonn.
Theodore made a most memorable guest appearance in the 1992
PBS special,
Chanukkah at Grover's Corner. Bikel made
latkes with a talking puppet named "Mozart" and wore a pink sweater, much to the delight of "Terry A La Berry".
Other work
Bikel is President of the
Associated Actors and Artistes of America, and was president of
Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. U.S. President
Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on the National Council for the Arts in 1977 for a six year term. On January 28, 2007, he was elected to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA. Bikel is also a lecturer. Bikel's
autobiography Theo was published in 1995 by
Harper Collins, and re-issued in an updated version by the
University of Wisconsin Press in 2002.
Partial filmography
Interview
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.Further Information
Get more info on 'Theodore Bikel'.
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