Theodore Bikel(1924-2015)
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
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 (1951), the king of Serbia in Moulin Rouge (1952) and a German
submarine officer in The Enemy Below (1957). He was nominated for an Academy Award for
his role in The Defiant Ones (1958). Equally at home on the stage, Bikel is remembered
for creating the role of Captain Von Trapp in the original Broadway
cast of "The Sound of Music" opposite Mary Martin. He also appeared on
stage in "Tonight in Samarkand", "The Lark" and "The Rope Dancers".
Bikel is fluent in more than half a dozen European and Middle Eastern
languages, and sings folk songs in nearly 20 languages, skillfully
accompanying himself on guitar, mandolin, balalaika and harmonica. He
was a regular on the early 1960s TV show Hootenanny (1963), 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.
