Actor Theodore Bikel was the President of the Actors' Equity Association, in which office he supported human rights. At the 1977 AFL–CIO Convention, Bikel (right) welcomed the Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky (center) upon his release from the Soviet Union. Tom Kahn (left) was an assistant to AFL–CIO President George Meany.^[1]

Theodore Meir Bikel (born May 2, 1924) is a character actor, folk singer and musician. He made his film debut in The African Queen (1951) and was nominated for an Academy award for his supporting role as Sheriff Max Muller in The Defiant Ones (1958).

Bikel is President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America and was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA^[2], where he also lectures. His autobiography, Theo, was published in 1995.

Early years[link]

Bikel was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Miriam (née Riegler) and Josef Bikel from Bukovina.^[3] Being active in Zionism, his father named him after the Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism. Following the Nazi occupation of Austria, Bikel's family fled to Palestine, where his father's Zionist contacts helped the family obtain British passports. The British Mandate for Palestine was responsible for organizing a Jewish state in Palestine.^[4]

Bikel started acting while in his teens. He co-founded the Cameri Theatre there—which has gone on to become one of Israel's biggest theaters—before he moved to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1945.^[5] In 1948, Michael Redgrave recommended Bikel to his friend Laurence Olivier as understudy for the parts of both Stanley Kowalski and Mitch in the West End premiere of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire.^[6] Bikel graduated from understudy to star opposite the director's wife, Vivien Leigh, who would go on to recreate her role as Blanche DuBois in the film version opposite Marlon Brando.

Acting career[link]

After several plays and films in Europe, Bikel moved to the United States in 1954, and became a naturalized citizen in 1961. He was the U-boat first officer to Curt Jürgens in The Enemy Below (1957) and played the captain of the Russian submarine in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). He also portrayed the sadistic General Jouvet in The Pride and the Passion (1957) Bikel was screentested for the role of Auric Goldfinger in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964). The screentest can be seen on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD released in 2006. Bikel also appeared in Frank Zappa's 1971 film 200 Motels.

On Broadway he originated the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music in 1959, for which he received his second Tony nomination. Bikel did not like his role in "Sound of Music" because his ability to sing was limited in the play, and he did not like to perform the same role of the Captain repeatedly. In 1964, he played Zoltan Karpathy, the dialect expert, in the film version of My Fair Lady. Since his first appearance as Tevye in the musical Fiddler on the Roof in 1967, Bikel has performed the role more often than any other actor (more than 2,000 times to date). When an injury required 74 year old fellow Israeli performer Chaim Topol (veteran of many productions of the stage show and star of the motion picture of Fiddler on the Roof) to withdraw from a high-budget, much-promoted 2009 North American tour of the musical, Bikel substituted for him in several Canadian appearances, including Calgary in January 2010, and has scheduled appearances in the musical beyond his 86th birthday in May.^[7]

In the 1950s, Bikel produced and sang in several albums of Jewish folk songs, as well as Songs of a Russian Gypsy, in 1958. He was a co-founder of the Newport Folk Festival (together with Pete Seeger and George Wein) in 1959. In 1962, he heard Bob Dylan give his premiere performance of "Blowin' in the Wind". Bikel then went to his scheduled performance and became the first singer besides Dylan to perform the song in public. Bikel (with business partner Herb Cohen) opened the first folk music coffeehouse in Los Angeles, The Unicorn. Its popularity led to the two opening a second club, Cosmo Alley, which in addition to folk music presented poets such as Maya Angelou and comics including Lenny Bruce. Bikel became increasingly involved with civil rights issues and progressive causes, and was a delegate to the 1968 Democratic Convention.^[8]

In addition to scores of appearances on film and on the stage, Bikel was a guest star on many popular television shows. He appeared in an episode of the 1954 NBC legal drama Justice based on cases from the Legal Aid Society of New York.^[9] He also appeared in the episode entitled "The Faithful Pilgrimage" of CBS's Appointment with Adventure anthology series. The particular episode was written by Rod Serling. He also appeared in a second episode of Appointment with Adventure entitled "Return of the Stranger."

Later, Bikel guest starred on Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (episode "Four O'Clock" as Oliver Crangle). He appeared on episodes of Wagon Train, Hawaii Five-O, Columbo, Charlie's Angels, Little House on the Prairie, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke, Dynasty, "All in the Family, Knight Rider, and Law & Order. He appeared on the game show Super Password as a celebrity guest in 1988.

In the early 1990s, he appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in the episode "Family", playing Sergey Rozhenko, the Russian-born adopted father of Worf, who, as a petty officer on the Starfleet vessel Intrepid, had found Worf at the site of the Khitomer Massacre and taken him home to raise as his son. Bikel performed two roles in the Babylon 5 universe. In 1994 he portrayed Rabbi Koslov in the first season episode "TKO". In 1998 he appeared in the TV movie Babylon 5: In the Beginning as Anla'Shok leader Lenonn.

Actors' unions and charities: Leadership[link]

Bikel is President of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America. He was president of Actors' Equity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in which office he supported human rights. At the 1977 AFL–CIO Convention, Bikel welcomed the Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky upon his release from the Soviet Union.^[1] U.S. President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on the National Council for the Arts in 1977 for a six-year term.^{[citation needed]}

On January 28, 2007, he agreed to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors of Meretz USA, where he also lectures.

His autobiography, Theo, was published in 1995 by Harper Collins, and re-issued in an updated version by the University of Wisconsin Press in 2002. He is a member of the High IQ collective Mensa International.^[10]

Marriage[link]

Bikel married his third wife, conductor Tamara Brooks (1941-2012), in 2008.

Discography[link]

• Songs of a Russian Gypsy (1958)
• Bravo Bikel (1959)
• Songs of Russia Old & New (1960)
• A Folksinger's Choice (1964)
• Songs of the Earth (1967)
• A New Day (1969)
• Folk Songs From Just About Everywhere (1958)

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Theodore Bikel at the Internet Movie Database
• Theodore Bikel at AllRovi
• Theodore Bikel at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Theodore Bikel Official website
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• Theodore Bikel at the Internet Accuracy Project

Tommy Makem
Tommy on stage, 2005
Born	(1932-11-04)November 4, 1932 Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland
Died	August 1, 2007(2007-08-01) (aged 74) Dover, New Hampshire, United States
Occupation	Musician, artist and poet
Children	4
Website
www.makem.com

Thomas "Tommy" Makem (November 4, 1932 – August 1, 2007) was an internationally celebrated Irish folk musician, artist, poet and storyteller. He was best known as a member of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. He played the long-necked 5-string banjo, guitar, tin whistle, and bagpipes, and sang in a distinctive baritone. He was sometimes known as "The Bard of Armagh" (taken from a traditional song of the same name) and "The Godfather of Irish Music".^[1]

Life and work[link]

Makem was born and raised in Keady, County Armagh (the "Hub of the Universe" as Makem always said), in Northern Ireland.^[2] His mother, Sarah Makem, was an important source of traditional Irish music, who was visited and recorded by, among others, Diane Guggenheim Hamilton, Jean Ritchie, Peter Kennedy and Sean O'Boyle. His father, Peter Makem, was a fiddler who also played the bass drum in a local pipe band named "Oliver Plunkett", after a martyr of the Cromwell age. His brother and sister were folk musicians also. Young Tommy Makem, from the age of 8, was member of the St. Patrick's church choir for 15 years where he sang Gregorian chant and motets. He didn't learn to read music but he made it in his "own way".^[3]

He started to work at 14 as a clerk in a garage and later he worked for a while as a barman at Mone's Bar, a local pub and as a local correspondent for The Armagh Observer.

He emigrated to the United States in 1955, carrying his few possessions and a set of bagpipes (from his time in a pipe band). Arriving in Dover, New Hampshire, he worked at Kidder Press, where in 1956 his hand was accidentally crushed by a press.^[4] With his arm in a sling, he left Dover for New York to pursue an acting career.^[5]

The Clancys and Makem were signed to Columbia Records in 1961. The same year, at the Newport Folk Festival, Makem and Joan Baez were named the most promising newcomers on the American folk scene. During the 1960s, The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem^[6] performed sellout concerts at such venues as Carnegie Hall, and made television appearances on shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. The group performed for President Kennedy. They also played in smaller venues such as the Gate of Horn in Chicago. They appeared jointly in the UK Albums Chart in April 1966, when Isn't It Grand Boys reached number 22.^[7]

Makem left the group in 1969 to pursue a solo career. In 1975, he and Liam Clancy were both booked to play a folk festival in Cleveland, Ohio, and were persuaded to do a set together. Thereafter they often performed as Makem and Clancy, recording several albums together. At a concert in 1977, Tommy noticed an audience member having a good time and exclaimed, "What have you been smoking? Good whatever you have, pass it around to the rest of them we'll all get goin'!" He once again went solo in 1988. Throughout the 70's and 80's Makem performed both solo and with Liam Clancy on The Irish Rovers various television shows, which were filming both in Canada and Ireland.

In the 1980-90s, Makem was a principal in a well-known Irish music venue in New York City, "Tommy Makem's Irish Pavilion." This East 57th Street club was a prominent and well-loved performance spot for a wide range of musicians. Among the performers and visitors were Paddy Reilly, Joe Burke, and Ronnie Gilbert. Makem was a regular performer, often solo and often as part of Makem & Clancy, particularly in the late fall and holiday season. The club was also used for warm-up performances in the weeks before the 1984 reunion concert of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem at Lincoln Center.

In 1997 he wrote a book, Tommy Makem's Secret Ireland, and in 1999 premiered his own one-man theatre show, Invasions and Legacies, in New York. His career includes various other acting, video,^[8] composition, and writing credits.^[9] He also established the Tommy Makem International Festival of Song in South Armagh in 2000.^[10]

Family[link]

Makem was married to Mary Shanahan, a native of Chicago, for 37 years, and had four children - daughter Katie Makem-Boucher, and sons Shane, Conor and Rory. They also had two grandchildren, Molly (Dickerman) Makem and Robert Boucher. Mary died in 2001.^[10][11]

Makem's three sons (who perform as "The Makem Brothers") and nephews Tom & Jimmy Sweeney continue the family folk music tradition.

Death[link]

Makem died in Dover, New Hampshire on August 1, 2007, following a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He continued to record and perform until very close to the end. Paying tribute to him after his death, Liam Clancy said, "He was my brother in every way"^[12] He is buried next to his wife at New Saint Mary Cemetery in Dover.

Compositions[link]

Makem was a prolific composer/songwriter. His performances were always full of his compositions, many of which became standards in the repertoire. Some, notably "Four Green Fields", became so well known that they were sometimes described as anonymous folk songs. During the fall of the Iron Curtain, Makem often proudly told the story that his song "The Winds Are Singing Freedom" had become a sort of folk anthem among Eastern Europeans seeing a new future opening before them.

Makem's best-known songs include "Four Green Fields", "Gentle Annie", "The Rambles of Spring", "The Winds Are Singing Freedom", "The Town of Ballybay", "Winds of the Morning", "Mary Mack", and "Farewell to Carlingford". Even though many people mistakenly believe that Makem wrote "Red is the Rose", it is a traditional Irish folk song.^[13]

Performance notes[link]

Makem had a gripping stage presence – the result of years of public performance, a charismatic personality, and a bard's voice. An army of friends and fans attended his frequent concerts, many recognizing each other at far-flung venues. Performances frequently included the following familiar elements:

• Original Makem compositions; the first set often began with "The Rambles of Spring"
• The standard repertoire of folk and Irish music, both well-known and little-known (but never "Danny Boy", "When Irish Eyes are Smiling", "Toorah Loorah Looral", or other forbidden requests)
• Oddball songs, such as "Bridie Murphy and the Kamikaze Pilot" (Colm Gallagher) or "William Bloat" (Raymond Calvert)
• Poetic recitations, often as introductions to songs; a frequent source was William Butler Yeats. (Thus "Gentle Annie" usually began with "When You Are Old and Grey", and Four Green Fields usually began with Seamus Heaney's "Requiem for the Croppies".)
• Jokes, often silly, made funnier through repetition:

"If your nose is running and your feet smell, you're upside down."

• Rarely: monologues, such as Marriott Edgar's "The Lion and Albert"
• Exhortations, nearly always successful, for the audience to join in the singing

Awards and honours[link]

He received many awards and honours, including three honorary doctorates: one from the University of New Hampshire in 1998, one from the University of Limerick in 2001, and one from the University of Ulster in 2007; as well as the World Folk Music Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. With the Clancy Brothers he was listed among the top 100 Irish-Americans of the 20th century in 1999.^[10]

A bridge over the Cocheco River on Washington Street in Makem's long-time home of Dover, New Hampshire, was named the Tommy and Mary Makem Memorial Bridge in 2010.^[14]

Discography[link]

Makem made dozens of recordings.^[15]

Specific examples follow (solo recordings only).

• Songs of Tommy Makem (1961) - Tradition (also on CD)
• Tommy Makem Sings Tommy Makem (1968) - Columbia
• In the Dark Green Wood (1969) - Columbia
• The Bard of Armagh (1970) - GWP^[16]
• Love Is Lord of All (1971) - GWP^[16]
• Listen...for the rafters are ringing (1972) - Bard (US) / Columbia (overseas)^[17]
• Recorded Live - A Roomfull of Song (1973) - Bard/Columbia (as above)
• In the Dark Green Woods (1974) - Polydor (Ireland Only)
• Ever the Winds (1975) - Polydor (Ireland Only)
• 4 Green Fields (1975) - HAWK
• Lord of the Dance (exclusive live version) / Winds are Singing Freedom - HAWK

Following releases all available on Shanachie CD unless noted otherwise

• Lonesome Waters (1985)
• Rolling Home (1989)
• Songbag (1990) - reissued on 'Red Biddy'
• Live at the Irish Pavilion (1993)
• Christmas (1995)
• Ancient Pulsing Poetry With Music (1996) - Red Biddy
• The Song Tradition (1998)

Guest recordings

• The Lark in the Morning by Liam Clancy, Tommy Makem, Family and Friends (1955) - Tradition (also on CD)
• Folk Festival at Newport, Volume 1 (1959) - Vanguard
• The Newport Folk Festival, Volume 1 (1960) - Vanguard
• Songs for a Better Tomorrow (1963) - UAW
• Songs of the Working People (1988) - Flying Fish
• The Makem Brothers - On the Rocks (1995) - Red Biddy
• Where Have All The Flowers Gone?: The Songs of Pete Seeger (1998) - Appleseed
• Schooner Fare - A 20th Anniversary Party (1999) - Outer Green
• Barra MacNeils - The Christmas Album (1999) - label unknown
• Cherish the Ladies - The Girls Won't Leave the Boys Alone (2000) - Windham Hill
• Roger McGuinn - Treasures from the Folk Den (2001) - Appleseed
• 25th Annual Sea Music Festival (2004) - Independent release
• Barra MacNeils - The Christmas Album II (2006) - unknown label

Posthumous releases

• Legendary Tommy Makem Collection (2007) - Emerald

Videos[link]

• The Story of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem (1984) - Shanachie
• Reunion Concert: Belfast (1984) - Shanachie
• Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest (1965) (circa 1985) - Central Sun / reissued on Shanachie
• Tommy Makem and Friends in Concert (1992) - WMHT/PBS
• Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration (1993) - Sony
• Tommy Makem in Concert With Pete Seeger and the Egan-Ivers Band (1994) - WMHT/PBS
• Tommy Makem in Concert With Odetta and The Barra MacNeils (1994) - WMHT/PBS
• Tommy Makem's Ireland (1994) - WMHT/PBS
• A Christmas Tradition (1995) - WMHT/PBS
• The Road Taken With Tommy Makem (2001) - WMHT/PBS
• The Makem and Spain Brothers In Concert (2006) - WMHT/PBS
• The Best of 'Hootenanny' (2007) - Shout! (Clancy Brothers featured in 3 performances)
• Come West Along the Road (2007) - RTÉ (completion video, featured in one performance)

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Martin, Douglas (August 3, 2007). "Tommy Makem, 74, Hero of Irish Folk Music, Dies". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/arts/03makem.html. Retrieved November 26, 2011. 

External links[link]

• Official website
• Biography at Yahoo.com
• Biography at Ramblinghouse
• Obituary and Tribute
• Tommy Makem at Find a Grave