1. Philip "Fyvush" Finkel was an American actor and director known as a star of Yiddish theater and for his role as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh on the television series Picket Fences, for which he earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1994.
Fyvush Finkel is known for his portrayal of Harvey Lipschultz, a crotchety history teacher, on the television series Boston Public.
Philip Finkel was born at home in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City, the third of four sons of Jewish immigrant parents, Mary, a housewife from Minsk, Belarus, and Harry Finkel, a tailor from Warsaw.
Fyvush Finkel adopted the stage name "Fyvush", a common Yiddish given name.
Fyvush 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 Catskills' Borscht Belt.
Fyvush Finkel 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.
Fyvush 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, Fyvush Finkel succeeded Hy Anzell in the role of Mr Mushnik in the Off-Broadway musical Little Shop of Horrors.
Fyvush Finkel made his movie debut in the English-subtitled, Yiddish sketch-comedy revue Monticello, Here We Come, 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.
Fyvush Finkel was married to Trudi Lieberman from March 1947 until her death in 2009.
Fyvush Finkel died in Manhattan on August 14,2016, at the age of 93, as a result of heart problems.