Alan Mandell, 1927 – 2026

Canadian-born character actor Alan Mandell, 98, died on Oct. 13. Mandell specialized in Samuel Beckett plays, even being directed by Beckett in Waiting for Godot and Endgame (he also appeared onstage in The Country Wife, Enemies, An Enemy of the People, The Plough and the Stars, The Merchant of Venice, and A Streetcar Named Desire). On TV, he was seen in Cannon, The Six Million Dollar Man, Man from Atlantis, Baretta, Eight Is Enough, Sisters and Grey’s Anatomy, and had roles in the films Illegally Yours, The Marrying Man, Shortbus, A Serious Man, Addicted to Fresno, and Velvet Buzzsaw.  Of working with Samuel Beckett, Mandell recalled, “He was always making notes. He was forever correcting and eliminating. I remember when we were in Rome there were all these people in the audience with scripts in their hands. Afterwards some of them came back and said they liked the performance, but you left out these sections. I said, ‘Oh, no, Beckett made some cuts.’”