Theodore Bikel, or Theo, as he was most often called, was the first actor to play "Tevye" in "Fiddler" offshore, and he was the first actor to play Tevye in a theatre-in-the-round.
Theo most often played in "Fiddler on the Roof" in touring, national companies. He played Tevye on stage more than two-thousand times!
He first played Tevye in 1967 in an abridged version of "Fiddler" at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and did so for six months. And he continued to play "Tevye" on and off for forty years.
He wrote, in part, of this experience in his autobiography, simply entitled "Theo":
"My first Fiddler cast gave me a taste of what I would experience many times over the years: actors who knew nothing of the background and history of Eastern European Jews, and yet who absorbed the ways of Anatevka, as if by osmosis.
You do not have to be Jewish to play in "Fiddler on the Roof," you only must be a good actor."
He also wrote about the lives of the Jews in Eastern Europe that inspired "Fiddler":
"The world of Anatevka, the mythical town in which "Fiddler on the Roof" is set, has been written about many times. Within the Russian empire, the Pale of Settlement, the carefully circumscribed area outside which Jews were not permitted to take up residence, contained small villages very much like Anatevka. This was the archetypal shtetl in which Eastern Europe's Jewish life unfolded, where the Yiddish language flowered and where richness of spirit stood in such contrast to the poverty of the inhabitants ...
They were people guided by rules of behavior laid down by the Halachah, a set of codes compiled over centuries by the rabbis. These codes governed not merely religious ritual, but all facets of life outside the house of prayer as well. They covered birth, circumcision, betrothal, marriage, cleanliness, and the behavior of one Jew toward another at all times. Sabbath and the festivals turned even the poorest of shtetl Jews into a wearer of a nobleman's mantle. There was danger and pain in this place of poverty, but there was also beauty and there was song. This world furnished endless material for Jewish writers, poets, and singers in Eastern Europe; translations into many of the world's languages followed. The works of Sholem Aleichem, I.L. Peretz, and Abraham Goldfaden were performed on stages wherever the Yiddish language was spoken: Poland, Argentina, Mexico, and the United States. It was only a matter of time before someone would decide that here was material for the Broadway theatre as well."
Theo also wrote about the playing "Fiddler on the Roof" in Russia, of all places.
"As anticipated, in the Soviet Union "Fiddler on the Roof" was not produced during the many years of its successes elsewhere in the world. When a Jewish theatre group was finally permitted to mount the play, they were forced to make changes in the script. The pogrom by the Russians against the Jews was softened and the antagonism between the two groups was made to occupy a low priority within the action. Most disturbingly, the ending was radically changed. Tevye and his family could not be allowed to leave Russia for a free life in America. They were made to wander off into the sunset to find a new and freer life in the Soviet Union after the revolution, as part of a glorious society which they would help to build. Joe Stein, Jerry Bock, and Sheldon Harnick, the creative team of Fiddler, protested such radical surgery and attempted to withhold permission for performing the play with these changes, but the production was mounted over their objections. Especially in the light of how Soviet Jews had fared under the regime, this was a cruel hoax."
Theodore Bikel was many things. He was an actor, folk singer, musician, composer, unionist, and political activist. He appeared in many well-known films, including "The African Queen", "Moulin Rouge," "The Kidnappers," "The Enemy Below," "I Want to Live!," "My Fair Lady," and "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming."
For his portrayal of Sheriff Max Muller in "The Defiant Ones," which was released in 1958, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Looking back at all his accomplishments, Thedore Bikel had quite an illustrious career and a full and rewarding life!
