BY LEE PFEIFFER
Theodore Bikel, who played Captain Von Trapp in the original 1959 stage production of The Sound of Music, has died from natural causes in Los Angeles. He was 91 years old. Bikel was Austrian by birth but his father moved the family to Palestine (later Israel) in the wake of the Nazi anschuluss. Bikel always had an interest in the arts and took up acting and folk singing. He emigrated to London in 1946 where he made a name in stage productions. He later went to Hollywood and made his big screen debut in 1954. He found immediate success and over the years appeared in such films as The African Queen, I Want to Live!, My Fair Lady and The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!. He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his role in Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones. Bikel also appeared in many classic TV series, all the while keeping his strong ties to the stage. He starred in over 2,000 performances of Fiddler on the Roof. He recorded dozens of albums of folk songs and was very tied to promoting Jewish culture and heritage. He was also a political activist throughout his life. An interesting side note: Bikel unsuccessfully screen tested for the role of Auric Goldfinger in the classic 1964 007 film. (The part eventually went to Gert Frobe). When my co-producers and I unearthed the screen test footage in the mid-1990s, Bikel was gracious enough to allow us to you use it our documentary The Making of Goldfinger. Not many actors would have been secure enough to willingly expose their unsuccessful screen test to millions of viewers, but Bikel did and for that this writer will always be personally grateful to him.
For more on Bikel's life and career click here.