Versatile Theodore Bikel To Appear Twice

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30190, 23 July 1963, Page 8

Versatile Theodore Bikel To Appear Twice

Theodore Bikel, who as finger, guitarist, actor, linguist, raconteur and comedian, has claims to being the most versatile artist on the stage today, will make a tour of New Zealand next month. Accompanied by the doublebass player, George Campbell, he will give performances in the Civic Theatre on Monday, August 12, and Tuesday, August 13.

Bikel has appeared in countless films in a wide variety of roles, winning an Academy Award nomination for his performance as a Southern sheriff in “The Defiant Ones.” At the same time, his folk-singing has gained him a nation-wide reputation in the United States. He has recorded almost a dozen albums, makes frequent concert tours and conducts a weekly radio programme which is broadcast in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

The deluge of mail which greeted hi® one-man, 90minute television show “One Night Stand” on WNTA-TV in New York prompted the station to offer him a weekly series.

Born in Vienna 38 years ago. /Theodore Bikel fled to Palestine with his parents when he was 14. His father is now a director of the public health service in Israel. In 1943 Theodore Bikel joined the Habimah Theatre in Tel Aviv, resigning to found the Tel Aviv Chamber Theatre. Two years later he left to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1949, Sir Laurence Olivier cast him as Mitch in the first European production of “A Streetcar Named Desire." After the London run of that play he took a role tn John Huston's film, “The African Queen." Then he returned to the London stage to play the Russian officer in Peter Ustinov’s “The Love of Four Colonels’’ for two years. In 1954 he went to the United States, where he has played a multitude of leading roles on Broadway, in films and on television. His latest Broadway success was play-

mg opposite Mary Martin in “The Sound of Music,” the Rodgers and Kammerstein musical based on the story of the Trapp family singers, in which he was able to put most of his talents to work. He speaks 17 languages, from Zulu to Greek and he has published a book on folk songs.