Early life

Finkel was born at home in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, the third of four sons of Jewish immigrant tailor Harry Finkel (from Warsaw) and housewife Mary (from Minsk). He adopted the stage name "Fyvush", a common Yiddish given name.

Career

Finkel first appeared on the stage at age 9, and acted for almost 35 years in the thriving Yiddish theaters of the Yiddish Theater District of Manhattan's Lower East Side, as well as performing as a standup comic in the Catskill's Borscht Belt. In 2008 he recalled:

I played child parts till I was 14, 15, then my voice changed. So I decided to learn a trade and went to a vocational high school in New York. I studied to be a furrier, but I never worked at it. As soon as I graduated high school, I went to a stock company in Pittsburgh, a Jewish theater, and I played there for 38 weeks, and that's where I actually learned my trade a little bit as an adult.

He worked regularly until the ethnic venues began dying out in the early 1960s, then made his Broadway theatre debut in the original 1964 production of the musical Fiddler on the Roof, joining the cast as Mordcha, the innkeeper, in 1965. The production ran through July 2, 1972. Finkel then played Lazar Wolf, the butcher, in the limited run 1981 Broadway revival, and eventually played the lead role of Tevye the milkman for years in the national touring company.

Shortly afterward, Finkel succeeded Hy Anzell in the role of Mr. Mushnik in the Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors. Then in 1988, Finkel's work as "Sam" in the New York Shakespeare Festival revival of the Yiddish classic Cafe Crown earned him an Obie Award and a Drama Desk nomination.

Finkel made his movie debut in the English-subtitled, Yiddish sketch-comedy revue Monticello, Here We Come (1950), then after small parts in an episode of the television series Kojak in 1977 and the miniseries Evergreen in 1985, returned to film in the detective comedy Off Beat (1986). That same year saw a role opposite Robin Williams in a PBS American Playhouse adaptation of Saul Bellow's novel Seize the Day, and a role in the film adaptation of Neil Simon's Broadway comedy Brighton Beach Memoirs. An appearance as a lawyer in director Sidney Lumet's Q & A (1990) led TV producer-writer David E. Kelley to cast Finkel as public defender Douglas Wambaugh in the television series Picket Fences (CBS, 1992-1996). For the role, Finkel earned a 1994 Emmy Award, announcing at the televised ceremonies that he had waited 51 years for that moment.

Following the end of Picket Fences, Finkel had a regular role on the short-lived revival of Fantasy Island (ABC, 1998) and then reteamed with writer-producer Kelley to play history teacher Harvey Lipschultz in Boston Public (Fox, 2000-2004).

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Finkel has appeared in movies including Nixon and The Crew, guested on TV series including Chicago Hope, Law & Order, Early Edition, and Hollywood Squares, and provided voiceovers for episodes of the animated series The Simpsons ("Lisa's Sax") and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters ("Ickis! You'll Be Snorched!") and the animated direct-to-video feature The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. In 2009, he appeared in the Coen brothers' film A Serious Man, and in 2013 had a guest appearance in Blue Bloods ("Men In Black")

Finkel has continued to appear onstage in productions as Fyvush Finkel: From Second Avenue to Broadway (1997) and Classic Stage Company's historical drama New Jerusalem (2007), by playwright David Ives.

Personal life

Finkel was married to Trudi Lieberman from March 1947 until her death in 2008. They had two sons: Ian, a musical arranger, and Elliot, a concert pianist.

Awards

• American Comedy Award, Picket Fences 1993.
• Emmy Award, Supporting Actor in a Dramatic Series, Picket Fences 1993-1994.
• Obie Award: Performance, Cafe Crown 1988-1989.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Off Beat	Vendor
1986	Seize the Day	Shomier
1986	Brighton Beach Memoirs	Mr. Greenblat
1990	Q&A	Preston Pearlstein
1991	Mobsters	Tailor
1993	The Pickle	Mr. Shacknoff
1993	For Love or Money	Milton Glickman
1995	Aaron's Magic Village	Narrator
1995	Nixon	Murray Chotiner	Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1998	The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars	Hearing Aid
2000	The Crew	Sol Lowenstein
2009	A Serious Man	Dybbuk	Nominated—Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cast

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Kojak	Simon	Episode: "Kojak Days: Part 1"
1992-1996	Picket Fences	Douglas Wambaugh	85 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated—Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Drama Series Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series Nominated—Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Quality Drama Series
1995	Chicago Hope	Douglas Wambaugh	Episode: "Small Sacrifices"
1995	Aaahh!!! Real Monsters	Jackie Jarr	2 episodes
1995	Great Performances	Himself	Episode: "Itzhak Perlman: In the Fiddler's House"
1996-1999	Early Edition	Phil Kazakian	2 episodes
1996	Rugrats	Shlomo	Episode: "Chanukah"
1997	The Simpsons	Himself as Krusty the Clown (voice)	Episode: "Lisa's Sax"
1998-1999	Fantasy Island	Fisher	13 episodes
2000-2004	Boston Public	Harvey Lipschultz	63 episodes
2000-2003	Hollywood Squares	Himself	10 episodes
2007	The Wedding Bells	Saul Finkelstein	Episode: "For Whom the Bells Toll"
2011	Harry's Law	Abe Gold	Episode: "The Rematch"
2013	Blue Bloods	Moishe	Episode: "Men in Black"

Charities

Fyvush Finkel supports the following charitable cause: Environment.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]