Theodore Bikel obit

Theodore Bikel Dead: My Fair Lady Actor Dies at 91
 

He was not on the list.

 

Broadway just lost one of its brightest stars. According to Variety and Deadline, veteran star Theodore Bikel passed away on Tuesday, July 21.

The longtime actor reportedly died in Los Angeles at the age of 91. Bikel spent much of his career on the Broadway stage and left a lasting legacy with his decades of work.

The Austria native opened the original 1959 production of The Sound of Music as Captain von Trapp, also appearing in Fiddler on the Roof, The Lark, and The Rope Dancers. Bikel's famed stage performances were sprinkled amongst a prolific filmography of television and film roles -- one that began in the 1940s with small-time gigs.

 

Bikel got one of his biggest breaks in 1951, when he booked a role in The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. He went on to earn an Academy Award nomination for his part in 1959's The Defiant Ones and appeared opposite Audrey Hepburn in 1964's My Fair Lady.

 

On the small screen, the multitalented star made a memorable appearance as Sergey Rozhenko in Star Trek: The Next Generation, also making cameos in All in the Family, Law & Order, and Murder, She Wrote. Bikel remained active in the years up until his death, telling the Los Angeles Times last June, "I never felt my age. I certainly don't feel 90 — maybe 70 — but not 90."

The late star, who has two children from his four marriages, is survived by his sons, two stepchildren, and his fourth wife, Aimee Ginsburg.

Complete filmography

The Cherry Orchard (1947, TV Movie)
Ein Breira (1949) - Narrator
Appointment with Venus (1951) - Man at Newspaper Vendor (uncredited)
The African Queen (1951) - First Officer
Moulin Rouge (1952) - King Milo IV of Serbia
Desperate Moment (1953) - Anton Meyer
Never Let Me Go (1953) - Lieutenant
Melba (1953) - Paul Brotha
A Day to Remember (1953) - Henri Dubot
The Kidnappers (US: The Little Kidnappers, 1953) - Dr. Willem Bloem
The Love Lottery (1954) - Parsimonious
Forbidden Cargo (1954) - Max
The Young Lovers (1954) - Joseph
Betrayed (1954) - German Sergeant (uncredited)
The Divided Heart (1954) - Josip
The Colditz Story (1955) - Vandy
Above Us the Waves (1955) - German Officer
Flight from Vienna (US: Escape from the Iron Curtain, 1956) - Col. Sandor Kosice
There Shall Be No Night (1957) - Uncle Vlahos
The Vintage (1957) - Eduardo Uribon
The Pride and the Passion (1957) - Gen. Jouvet
The Enemy Below (1957) - 'Heinie' Schwaffer
Man on the Run (US: The Kidnappers, 1958) - (unconfirmed)
Fräulein (1958) - Col. Dmitri Bucaron
I Bury the Living (1958) - Andy McKee
The Defiant Ones (1958) - Sheriff Max Muller
I Want to Live! (1958) - Carl G.G. Palmberg
The Angry Hills (1959) - Dimitrios Tassos
A Dog of Flanders (1959) - Piet van Gelder
Woman Obsessed (1959) - Dr. R. W. Gibbs
The Blue Angel (1959) - Klepert
My Fair Lady (1964) - Zoltan Karpathy
Who Has Seen the Wind? (1965, TV Movie) - Josef Radek
"Song for Dying" (1965 Gunsmoke, TV Series -
Sands of the Kalahari (1965) - Dr. Bondarahkai
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) - The Russian Captain
The Desperate Ones (1967) - Kisielev
The Diary of Anne Frank (1967, TV Movie)
Saint Joan (1967, TV Movie) - Robert de Baudricourt
Sweet November (1968) - Alonzo
My Side of the Mountain (1969) - Bando
Darker than Amber (1970) - Meyer
200 Motels (1971) - Rance Muhammitz / Dave
Killer by Night (1972, TV Movie) - Sgt. Phl 'Sharkey' Gold
The Little Ark (1972, TV Movie) - The Captain
Murder on Flight 502 (1975, TV Movie) - Otto Gruenwaldt
Victory at Entebbe (1976, TV Movie) - Yakov Shlomo
Testimony of Two Men (1977, TV Movie) - Peter Heger

Columbo "The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case" - Oliver Brandt
The Stingiest Man in Town (1978, TV Movie) - Marley's Ghost (voice)
The Return of the King (1980, TV Movie) - Aragorn (voice)
Prince Jack (1985) - Georgi
Very Close Quarters (1986) - Victor
A Stoning in Fulham County (1988, TV Movie) - Abe Moser
Dark Tower (1989) - Max Gold
See You in the Morning (1989) - Bronie
The Final Days (1989, TV Movie) - Henry Kissinger
Shattered (1991) - Dr. Berkus
Memories of Midnight (1991, TV Movie) - Napoleon Chotas
Crisis in the Kremlin (1992) - Leo
Benefit of the Doubt (1993) - Gideon Lee
My Family Treasure (1993) - Grandpa Danieloff
Shadow Conspiracy (1997) - Prof. Yuri Pochenko
Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998, TV Movie) - Lenonn
Second Chances (1998) - Dutch John Hathaway
Trickle (1998, Short) - Mr. Fix
H.U.D. (2000, TV Movie) - Ambassador Bjorn Jorgensen
Crime and Punishment (2002) - Captain Koch
The Little Traitor (2007) - Interrogator (final film role)