Fyvush Finkel Biography

Fast Facts

• Won an Obie Award for his 1988 through 1989 performance in Café Crown
• Started his 35-year career in the Yiddish Theater District of Manhattan's Lower East Side when he was 9 years old, attempting to learn a trade when he outgrew child parts but quickly returning to the stage as an actor and standup comic
• Quote: "I have no enemies in my profession․ I have outlived them all․"
• Came to television and film later in life with his most acclaimed role being public defender Douglas Wambaugh in the "Picket Fences" television series
• When the ethnic venues he'd become a staple of in his youth began declining in the 1960s, he started landing Broadway and Off-Broadway roles in such musicals as "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Little Shop of Horrors․"
• His stage name is the Yiddish translation for his given name
• Studied to be a furrier, but stated that he never worked hard at it