The Second Jewish Book of Why

Theodore Bikel was born in Vienna on May 2, 1924. He moved to Palestine with his family when he was 13 years old. He apprenticed at the Habimah theater in Tel Aviv in 1943. Three years later he went to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. While there, he starred in numerous small productions and graduated with honors in 1948. He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in Tonight in Samarkand. He created the role of Baron von Trapp in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music and toured for decades as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. He became a U.S. citizen in 1961.

He began recording folk song albums in 1955. His albums included Israeli Folk Songs, Songs of Russia Old and New, A Taste of Passover, A Taste of Hanukkah, and In My Own Lifetime: 12 Musical Theater Classics. He also wrote an autobiography entitled Theo. He died on July 21, 2015 at the age of 91.

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