Theodore Bikel

Theodore Bikel
Los Angeles Times

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Theodore Bikel
Live: North side of the 6200 block of Hollywood Boulevard
Actor | Composer | Musician | Writer
Born May 2, 1924 in Vienna, Austria
Died July 21, 2015 in UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, CA

Theodore Bikel was a multifaceted performer — stage, screen and television acting; folk singing; and musical theater performance.

Bikel made his film debut in "The African Queen" in 1951. He recorded 15 albums, beginning in 1955, mostly of folk songs.

In addition, he was Baron von Trapp in the original Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" and the Hungarian linguist in the film version of Lerner and Loewe's "My Fair Lady."

Bikel’s breakthrough stage role in London was in the 1949 production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and he was nominated for an Oscar for playing Southern sheriff Max Muller in the film “The Defiant Ones,” directed by Stanley Kramer.

But despite all that, Bikel was probably best remembered for his portrayal of Tevye in the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick musical "Fiddler on the Roof," a role he has performed almost 2,000 times.

Bikel died July 21, 2015 at UCLA Medical Center. He was 91.

— James E. Fowler in the Los Angeles Times Dec. 12, 1996, with additional material

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    Academy Awards

    Year Category Work
    1958 Best Supporting Actor The Defiant Ones Nomination

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