NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2016 (Gephardt Daily) — Fyvush Finkel, whose 80-year career included starring in numerous Yiddish theater productions in addition to the touring production of “Fiddler on the Roof” and the 1990s TV series “Picket Fences,” died Sunday at his Manhattan home, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 93.
His son, Ian, confirmed the death to the New York Times, noting that Finkel had been dealing with heart problems for several months.
Born Philip Finkel on Oct. 9, 1922, in Brooklyn, he was the son of a Polish tailor and a Russian homemaker who had immigrated earlier.
Finkel first appeared on the stage at age 9, and acted for almost 35 years in the thriving Yiddish theaters of the Yiddish Theater District of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, as well as performing as a standup comic in the Catskill’s Borscht Belt, until those venues died out in the 1960s.
Finkel made his Broadway theater debut in the original 1964 production of the musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” joining the cast as Mordcha, the innkeeper, in 1965. The production ran through July 2, 1972. Finkel then played Lazar Wolf, the butcher, in the limited-run 1981 Broadway revival and eventually played the lead role of Tevye, the milkman, for years in the national touring company.
Shortly afterward, Finkel succeeded Hy Anzell in the role of Mr. Mushnik in the off-Broadway musical “Little Shop of Horrors.” In 1988, Finkel’s work as Sam in the New York Shakespeare Festival revival of the Yiddish classic “Cafe Clown” earned him an Obie Award and a Drama Desk nomination.
Finkel made his movie debut in the English-subtitled, Yiddish sketch-comedy revue “Monticello Here We Come” (1950), then after small parts in an episode of the television series “Kojak” in 1977 and the miniseries “Evergreen” in 1985, returned to film in the detective comedy “Off Beat” in 1986.
That same year saw a role opposite Robin Williams in a PBS “American Playhouse” adaptation of Saul Bellow’s novel “Seize the Day,” and a role in the film adaptation of Neil Simon’s Broadway comedy “Brighton Beach Memoirs.”
An appearance as a lawyer in director Sidney Lumet’s Q & A in 1990 led TV producer-writer David E. Kelley to cast Finkel as public defender Douglas Wambaugh in the television series “Picket Fences” which ran on CBS from 1992 through 1996. For the role, Finkel earned a 1994 Emmy Award, announcing at the televised ceremonies that he had waited 51 years for that moment.
Following the end of “Picket Fences,” Finkel had a regular role on the short-lived revival of “Fantasy Island” (ABC, 1998) and then re-teamed with writer-producer Kelley to play history teacher Harvey Lipschultz in “Boston Public” which aired on Fox from 2000 through 2004.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Finkel appeared in movies including ‘Nixon” and “The Crew,” and guested on TV series, including “Chicago Hope,” “Law & Order,” “Early Edition” and “Hollywood Squares.”
The actor provided voice overs for episodes of the animated series “The Simpsons”(“Lisa’s Sax”) and the animated direct-to-video feature “The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars.” In 2009 he appeared in the Coen brothers’ film “A Serious Man” and in 2013 had a guest appearance in “Blue Bloods” (“Men In Black”)
Finkel continued to appear onstage in productions such as 1997’s “Fyvush Finkel: From Second Avenue to Broadway” and in 2007’s Classic Stage Company’s historical drama “New Jerusalem.”
