A veteran of stage and screen renowned as the interpreter of one of theater‘s most iconic plays, actor Alan Mandell has passed away at 98.
His son, Peter Mandell, and daughter-in-law, Sarah Mandell, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor passed away at his home on Tuesday, October 13.
‘Waiting for Godot’
In the world of theater, Mandell was best known for the renowned 1957 production of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play “Waiting for Godot,” which was staged within the confines of San Quentin State Prison.
A member of the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop, led by Jules Irving and Herbert Blau, Mandell portrayed the slave Lucky in a performance for 1,400 inmates. That experience led to his co-founding the San Quentin Drama Workshop with inmate Rick Cluchey, who would go on to become a noted actor and playwright in his own right. Working together, Mandell and Cluchey staged numerous subsequent plays at the prison.
Mandell wound up becoming friends with playwright Beckett, who directed Mandell in his production of “Waiting for Godot,” as well as in his subsequent play “Endgame.”
“The text for [Beckett] was like a score, and the important thing for us was to find the rhythm of the line,” Mandell told the Los Angeles Times in 2015. “Once you had that, you were set.”
In fact, Mandell appeared in so many productions of Beckett-written plays — particularly “Godot” — that when Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter prepared to play Estragon and Vladimir, respectively, in a most excellent 2025 “Waiting for Godot” revival, the “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” co-stars enlisted Mandell as consultant in order to utilize his expertise in all things Beckett.
Film and Television Roles
In addition to his work onstage, Mandell also appeared extensively in film and television.
In the former, one his most memorable roles was the elderly rabbi whose advice consists entirely of lyrics from the Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” in the Coen brothers’ 2009 movie “A Serious Man.”
Other films he appeared in include “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “Shortbus” and “Velvet Buzzsaw.”
Mandell also racked up numerous roles in TV series in a guest-starring capacity, spanning several decades. Among them: “Cannon,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Baretta,” “Eight Is Enough,” “Eight Is Enough,” “Sisters” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
In a 1992 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mandell recalled how he wound up gravitating toward the theater, which would ultimately place him on the path to become a professional actor.
“I was a dropout or ‘throw-out.’ It was one of those things,” he said. “My father wanted to know what was going to happen to me. I was 17 or 18. I told him I was going to go into the theater. He looked at me and said, ‘A nice Jewish boy goes to the theater.’ It was a great remark. I didn’t know what to say.”
Per The Hollywood Reporter, in addition to his son and daughter-in-law, Mandell is survived by his daughter, Olivia, and her husband, Dean; his grandchildren, Elizabeth, Ethan and Spencer; and his brother, Jerry. His wife of 30 years, Elizabeth Heller, passed away in 1997 at the age of 65.
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Esteemed Actor Whose Work Spanned Film, TV and Theater Has Passed Away at 98