Theodore Bikel

4/5

Biography

Theodore Bikel is one of the most versatile and respected actors and performers of his generation. A master of languages, dialects and accents, he has played every sort of film villain and semi-bad guy imaginable, and always adds depth, dimension and even sympathy to characters that would end up as cardboard cutouts in the hands of lesser actors. His memorable supporting roles include a German naval officer in _The African Queen , a weekly cavalcade of folk music. Over the years he has performed on college campuses and in concert halls all over the country, and has recorded a number of record albums of folk music from around the world.

  • Primary profession
  • Actor·soundtrack·director
  • Nationality
  • Austria
  • Gender
  • Male
  • Birth date
  • 02 May 1924
  • Place of birth
  • Vienna
  • Death date
  • 2015-07-21
  • Death age
  • 91
  • Place of death
  • Westwood· Los Angeles
  • Spouses
  • Tamara Brooks
  • Education
  • Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
  • Knows language
  • English language·Hebrew language·Yiddish
  • Member of
  • Meretz

Music

Lyrics

Movies

TV

Books

Trivia

Was twice nominated for Broadways Tony Award: in 1958, as Best Supporting or Featured Actor for "The Rope Dancers", and in 1960, as Best Supporting or Featured Actor for "The Sound of Music".

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on April 29, 2005.

Had appeared as a member of a MENSA-like society in "Columbo" {The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (#6.3)} ). In real life, he actually was a MENSA member.

He made guest appearances on both of the longest running prime time dramas in US television history: "Gunsmoke" and "Law & Order" .

Had played submarine officers from three different European navies: as the executive officer of a German World War II U-Boat in the film The Enemy Below ; as retired World War I Austro-Hungarian U-Boat Captain Georg Von Trapp in the original 1959 Broadway production of The Sound of Music ; and as the captain of a Soviet submarine during the Cold War in the film The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming .

Co-founded the Newport Folk Festival (with Pete Seeger).

Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote the song "Edelweiss" specifically for him to perform on Broadway in "The Sound of Music".

While making his film debut in The African Queen , he appeared on the London stage in "Love of Four Colonels".

Had performed the role of Tevye ("Fiddler on the Roof") over 2,000 times at various venues.

His parents, Miriam Gizella (Riegler) and Josef Bikel-Hasenfratz, were Jewish immigrants from Bukovina, in Central Europe.

Bikels folk song record album, "Songs of a Russian Gypsy" became an unexpected hit and remained highly popular through the early 1960s. This became Elektra Records best selling album at the time.

Theodore Bikel screen tested for the title role of the James Bond movie Goldfinger , which went to Gert Frbe.

Following his death, he was interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California, at the Garden of Solomon.

He was an active supporter and campaigner for John F Kennedy in the 1960 U.S. Presidential election.

He was known for his liberal political views.

In The Twilight Zone (1959-1963), he played a man who was intensely paranoid about Communism and Socialism and was devoted to harassing people whom he felt were believers. In real life, he was known for his far-left views.

He was a vocal supporter of the Civil Rights movement and other human rights movements.

He was the first person besides Bob Dylan to perform his song Blowin in The Wind in public.

Quotes

You learn more from the flops than from the hits.

What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I,make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it,is mine.

No doubt, unity is something to be desired, to be striven for, but it,cannot be willed by mere declarations.

I prefer to make common cause with those whose weapons are guitars,banjos, fiddles and words.

By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.

I have always striven to raise the voice of hope for a world where hate gives way to respect and oppression to liberation.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.

No heirloom of humankind captures the past as do art and language.

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