Fyvush Finkel, Emmy-winning character actor . By Mark Kennedy
Associated Press . NEW YORK - Actor Fyvush Finkel, the putty-faced Emmy
Award-winning character actor whose career in stage and screen started
in Yiddish theater and led to memorable roles in "Fiddler on the Roof"
on Broadway and on TV in "Boston Public" and "Picket Fences," died
Sunday. He was 93. Mr. Finkel, who was known for his mischievous smile
and an ability to prop his ears at an angle for optimum comic effect,
died in Manhattan, his son Ian said Monday. He said his father had
suffered heart problems for months. Mr. Finkel was a comedian, a
singer, a stage actor, a film actor, and a noted TV performer, from
"Fantasy Island" to "Blue Bloods. He celebrated his 80th birthday on
the set of "Boston Public," playing history teacher Harvey Lipschultz.
"He did everything," Ian Finkel said. "That seems to be a trait of the
old-time performers. They could all sing and dance and act and
everything. It's so wonderful. Mr. Finkel's long career began at age 9
when a production in his Brooklyn neighborhood was looking for a boy to
sing "Oh, Promise Me. Recalled Mr. Finkel in a 2002 interview: "I
stopped that show cold. They gave me a dollar a night. In the vibrant
Yiddish theater of the period, a solid performer could find steady
work. Mr. Finkel studied singing, dancing, and acting at a $1-a-week
school. But his parents insisted he learn a trade just in case showbiz
didn't pan out. A stint as a furrier was over quick. "I ruined about
$500 worth of material," he said. He found himself back onstage when
his new, mature voice settled in. He took a job with Yiddish theater in
Pittsburgh just shy of his 18th birthday. "I thought, 'This is where I
belong. And I've been in the theater ever since. In 1964, as Yiddish
theater was dying, he was hired for the touring company of the Broadway
hit "Fiddler on the Roof. He later said: "I went to do 'Fiddler' for
less money than I was getting in Yiddish theater, but I had to make the
move. And it was the best move I ever made. In "Fiddler on the Roof,"
he played Mordcha, and he took on the role of Tevye the milkman in a
national touring production in 1981. In his last appearance on Broadway
in 1989's "Cafe Crown," Mr. Finkel earned a Drama Desk Award
nomination. At age 60, after 12 years with various productions of
"Fiddler on the Roof," he was cast in the off-Broadway musical "Little
Shop of Horrors. That opened up movies and TV for him, including
"Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1986), "Q&A" (1990), and "Nixon" (1995). "If
you retire, you shrivel up. No doubt about it," he said in 2002. Mr.
Finkel won a supporting actor Emmy in 1994 for playing Douglas Wambaugh
on "Picket Fences" - he was also nominated the year before - and earned
a Golden Globe nomination for the role in 1995. He also earned three
Screen Actor Guild Awards, one for "Nixon" and two for "Picket Fences.
Mr. Finkel was married to Trudi Lieberman for 61 years until her death
in 2008. He leaves his sons Ian, a musical arranger and xylophone
virtuoso, and Elliot, a concert pianist; and five grandchildren.
