Theodore Bikel is an Oscar-nominated movie star, a folk singer and founder of the Newport Folk Festival, a Broadway superstar who has played the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof 2,100 times, and a MENSA member who speaks five languages. So what do Theodore Bikel and I have in common?
 
Bikel, 87, is in town to star in Visiting Mr Green, a play by Jeff Baron about an 86-year-old widower who is almost hit by a car driven by a reckless young gay executive named Ross. Ross is ordered by the court to spend the next six months making weekly visits to Mr Green. “It’s about two people who have been shut out of their own worlds,” Bikel says, “so they have to find a way to heal each other.”
  
The show co-stars Aidan deSalaiz, the local gay actor who co-starred with Bikel last year in the Montreal production of the new Canadian musical Lies My Father Told Me. For deSalaiz, it was almost impossible to resist a second chance to work with Bikel. “We have a good chemistry going on, and I love hearing stories about his life, like playing chess with Bogie or dancing with Audrey Hepburn. As an actor, he gives so much, all you have to do is respond. He’s completely brilliant.”
 
Bikel started as a folk singer but gradually moved into movies. In 1958 he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his work in The Defiant Ones. But he also made his mark on Broadway, originating the role of Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. “Nuns! Kids! How could it not be a hit? It was the first musical I ever did. It was set in Austria at a time I remember only too well, with Nazis and swastikas and Hitler. Broadway. In Boston they said, ‘Heil Hitler,’ but in New York they just said, ‘Heil.’”
 
Then came Tevye in Fiddler, the character made famous by Zero Mostel and Chaim Topol, but Bikel also put his stamp on the role. “Tevye was easy. I just played my own grandfather. We first did it in Las Vegas, an abridged version, twice nightly, in front of an audience that was there to gamble. The promoter offered to pay me half in cash, under the table. They also wanted to fingerprint the entire cast, because we were working inside a casino.” Bikel was friends with Mostel, whom he describes as “nuts, crazy. I remember speaking to Jack Gilford’s wife, Madeline, a few years after Zero’s death, and I told her, ‘Madeline, wherever Zero is now, they’ve probably already asked him to leave.’”
 
Bikel is a former president of Actors’ Equity and an outspoken activist. “I’ve been picketed by the Jewish Defense League  because I believe the territories are the single greatest hindrance to the peace process.” When asked if he would ever consider running for office, he replies, “I’m not rich enough to be an honest politician.” He dislikes the current Republican scene in the States and remains staunchly pro-gay. And he works all the time. He even did Star Trek: The Next Generation, as Worf’s earth father, and Babylon 5 as a space rabbi. He’s done it all.
 
So what do Theodore Bikel and I have in common? We both played the role of Zoltan Karpathy in My Fair Lady. Okay, so my production was done in a Timmins high school in the ’70s and his version was the recipient of the Best Picture Oscar in 1964. But I like to think that as a result, maybe I acquired just a smidgen of this man’s talent and energy, because a smidgen is all you would need.
 
Visiting Mr Green runs till Sat, Feb 18. Jane Mallett Theatre, 27 Front St E. $39.50-69.50. hgjewishtheatre.com