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[sovay]

I just found out Theodore Bikel has died.

I am going to listen to a lot of Yiddish folksongs and then set about finding a copy of The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966) stat.

Comments

[sovay]

Goodness, there's a name from my childhood! I had not realised he had done so much.

I grew up listening to his records and only later learned to recognize him in film and television appearances, like Worf's father on Star Trek: The Next Generation or a guest-starring rabbi on Babylon 5. See above to nineweaving: I don't know why, but he always looks to me like a character from this one goofy, humanitarian Cold War comedy. It took me years to get it fixed in my head that he made his film debut in The African Queen (1951). I kept being surprised to see him. I still think of him as a folksinger first.

[edit] I know he felt ambivalent about the role, but I've always been sorry he didn't play Captain von Trapp on film. I can't believe he was cast in My Fair Lady—in a non-singing part.