Bikel, Theodore (1924-2015), was a versatile Austrian-born American actor who was also a popular folk singer. On the stage and television and in motion pictures, Bikel played a wide variety of nationalities. He played characters ranging from comic figures to villains. He was the original Captain von Trapp in the hit Broadway musical The Sound of Music (1959). He also starred in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof (1964). He played the leading role of Tevye the dairyman more than 2,800 times from 1967 to 2009.
Theodor Meir Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 2, 1924. He moved to Palestine with his family in 1938 to escape the German Nazi government, which had seized control of Austria. In 1943, Bikel joined the famous Habimah Theatre in Tel Aviv, Palestine, as an apprentice. He also made his professional stage debut that year. In 1946, Bikel moved to London, England, to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. The spelling of his first name was changed to “Theodore” at that time. Bikel made his first appearance on the London stage in 1948. He made his American stage debut in New York City in 1955 and decided to settle in the United States. Bikel became an American citizen in 1961.
Bikel appeared in more than 40 motion pictures . He made his movie debut in The African Queen (1951) and received an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor for his performance as a Southern sheriff in The Defiant Ones (1958). His other major films include Moulin Rouge (1953), I Want to Live! (1958), My Fair Lady (1964), and The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966).
Beginning in 1955, Bikel recorded more than 20 folk song albums, singing in nearly 20 languages. He helped found the Newport Folk Festival. For many years, Bikel was active in civil rights and human rights movements. He was president of Actors’ Equity, the theater union, from 1973 to 1982 and was a member of the National Council on the Arts from 1977 to 1982. The council advises the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts on grants and other matters pertaining to national funding of the arts in the United States. Bikel wrote an autobiography, Theo (1994, revised 2002 and 2014). He died on July 21, 2015.
