Oscar-Nominated Actor Theodore Bikel Dead at 91

Theodore Bikel co-starred in one of the scariest movie ever – I BURY THE LIVING. The 1958 shocker was about a director of a cemetery director (Richard Boone) who begins to believe that he can cause the deaths of living owners of burial plots by merely changing the push-pin color from white (living) to black (dead) on a large wall map of the cemetery that notes those plots. Theodore Bikel played Andy MacKee, the Groundskeeper Willie-esque caretaker of the cemetery. It’s one of those movies I saw on TV when I was about 7 years old that terrified me. Bikel’s other accomplished screen roles include The Defiant Ones (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), The African Queen, My Fair Lady, and The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof. Theodore Bikel had performed the role of Tevye on stage more than 2,000 times! Bikel died today at age 91.

From CNN:

Theodore Bikel, a prolific performer and political activist who created the role of Captain Georg Von Trapp in the original Broadway production of “The Sound of Music” and defined the role of Tevye the Milkman during more than 2,200 performances of “Fiddler on the Roof,” has died. He was 91. Bikel died of natural causes on Tuesday morning at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, publicist Harlan Boll announced. Internationally renowned and respected as one of the most versatile actors of his generation, Bikel received an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor for “The Defiant Ones” (1958), where he played a Southern sheriff……

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