Theodore Bikel was a much admired and beloved actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist and political activist. He appeared in numerous films including The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), The Enemy Below (1957), I Want to Live! (1958), The Dog of Flanders (1958), The Blue Angel (1959), My Fair Lady (1964) and The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Defiant Ones (1958)
Bikel was also a widely recognized and recorded folk singer and guitarist. In 1959, he co-founded the Newport Folk Festival and created the role of Captain von Trapp opposite Mary Martin as Maria in the original Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The Sound of Music. In 1969, Bikel began acting and singing on stage as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof, a role he performed more often than any other actor to date. The production won nine Tony Awards and was one of the longest-running musicals in Broadway history.
Bikel was a guest star on many popular television series: in 1954, he appeared in NBC's legal drama, "Justice," he appeared in "Twilight Zone;" "Wagon Train," "Hawaii Five-O," "Columbo,"
"Charlie's Angels.""Cannon," "Little House on the Prairie," "Mission Impossible," "Gunsmoke," "Dynasty," "All in the Family," "Knight Rider," "Murder,She Wrote," "Fantasy Island," "Law & Order." and Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Je also had roles on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," The Family," "Babylon 5,"
Bikel received many awards in his life including: 1959, Academy Award Nomination for "The Defiant Ones," "1992, Honorary Doctorate of the University of Hartford; 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, 2005, A Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and many others;
He died at the age of 91 on July 21, 2015.
