Fyvush Finkel, ‘Picket Fences’ Actor, Dead at 93

Fyvush Finkel, the rubbery-faced 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 “Boston Public” and “Picket Fences” on television, died August 14 in Manhattan.

Finkel, the plastic-faced 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”, died Sunday, Aug. 13, 2016. Finkel made his Broadway debut in the original 1964 production of Fiddler on the Roof as Mordcha, the innkeeper, and participated in several productions of the show throughout his career, including some rounds as Tevye in the national touring company. After starring in an off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, Finekl won an Obie Award for his work in the New York Shakespeare Festival revival of Café Crown.

A funeral will be held Wednesday at the Sutton Place Synagogue on East 51st Street in Manhattan.

Finkel was best known to TV audience as public defender Douglas Wambaugh in “Picket Fences”, for which he was twice Emmy nominated, and won one in 1994.

Fyvush Finkel was an extremely versatile actor, having played roles on vaudeville, Broadway, and film, as well as television. He later held a regular role on the short-lived Fantasy Island remake series, and would re-ream with Kelly from 2000-2004 on Boston Public as history teacher Harvey Lipschultz.

Finkel’s long career began at age 9 in 1930 when a production in his Brooklyn neighborhood was looking for a boy to sing “Oh, Promise Me”. He took to acting early on, first appearing on a stage at the age of 9.

Finkel had film roles in “Q&A”, “Brighton Beach Memoirs”, “For Love or Money” and “Nixon”. He is survived by two sons.

According to his IMDB.com profile, Finkel was married in 1947 until his wife’s death in 2008.