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I know for certain of only one commandment, one obligation, that God imposes upon us, and that is to be compassionate toward other human beings.

Theodore Bikel

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Theodore Bikel
Age: 91 †
Born: 1924
Born: May 2
Died: 2015
Died: July 21
Actor
Businessperson
Film Actor
Musician
Politician
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Trade Unionist
Vienna
Austria
Theodore Meir Bikel
Humans
Commandments
Compassionate
Obligation
Toward
Beings
Upon
Certain
Commandment
Human
Imposes

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If I have one vanity wish, it would be to direct. It's the only thing I haven't done yet that I would like to.
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It's a sad thing to contemplate, but I'm the last surviving cast member of 'The African Queen.'
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On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.
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But, when I toil in the field of Jewish culture which I frequently do, I am indeed a Jewish artist.
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I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.
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I am a universalist, passionately devoted to the cause of equality within the human family.
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As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
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An actor is supposed to emulate life. Instead, alas, many are imitating other actors. You don't fashion your knowledge of theatre or your approach to a role on the basis of what other actors have done. This kind of thinking is a great danger, especially in dealing with TV producers who frequently say things like, 'This is a Sean Connery type.'
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John Huston was the kind of director that totally left you alone. Not every actor always does it right, every time, but most of the time he was re-directing someone. He was making tight adjustments, and not even in terms of interpretation because he knew that by the time that the character had been filmed... well, he got it right when he cast you.
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You can't expect the entire world to come to New York to see you. You have to travel to them.
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We Jews have a special attachment to the Book. The study of page after page in tomes yellowing with age was obligatory.
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You always draw on your experiences with live audiences to know how to do comedy on films. You're working for a laugh that may or may not come six months later, but you're working in a vacuum at the time you are doing it.
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Audiences are audiences.
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'Visiting Mr. Green' is a good play. I enjoy being in it, and I have a wonderful colleague, Aidan deSalaiz, to work with. Audiences like it a lot. What's not to like?
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Although I am deeply grateful to a great many people, I forgo the temptation of naming them for fear that I might slight any by omission.
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The play is always fresh to me. It's not the audience's fault that I've said the words before.
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In my world, history comes down to language and art. No one cares much about what battles were fought, who won them and who lost them - unless there is a painting, a play, a song or a poem that speaks of the event.
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In my world, history comes down to language and art.
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What moves me is neither ethnocentric pride nor sectarian arrogance. I make no claim that Jewish culture is superior to other cultures. But it is mine.
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I am determined to give the Yiddish language a fighting chance to survive.
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