Acclaimed actor Alan Mandell died on Tuesday at the age of 98. His family confirmed the news to numerous outlets and revealed he died of natural causes.
His career, which began when he started to work with the San Francisco Actor's Workshop in 1954 while visiting his sister, spanned stage and screen.
Television and film career
On TV, he appeared in numerous iconic shows. He was in one of the most famous episodes of The Six Million Dollar Man - The Secret of Bigfoot in 1976. A year later, he appeared opposite Dallas legend Patrick Duffy in The Man From Atlantis.
One of his last small screen appearances came in 2010 guesting as a character called Henry Stamm in an episode of the long running medical drama Grey's Anatomy.
On the big screen he made an impact as the ageing Rabbi whose sermons consist solely of lyrics from the Jefferson Airplane's Somebody to Love in 2009's A Serious Man, directed by The Coen Brothers.
He also appeared in 2001's Hedwig and the Angry Inch and 2006's Shortbus. His final film role came playing Ventril Dease in 2019's Velvet Buzzsaw opposite Jake Gyllenhaal.
A year later in 2020 he appeared as Fr. Angus in three episodes of Anthem: Homunculus opposite the likes of Glenn Close and Cynthia Erivo.
Stage work and Samuel Beckett
However it was for his stage work, in particular his interpretation of the works of Samuel Beckett, that he won the most acclaim.
Beckett himself directed him first in 1957 and later in Waiting for Godot and Endgame in Europe in 1985 and the pair were friends until the Irish playwright's death in 1989.
"The text for [Beckett] was like a score, and the important thing for us was to find the rhythm of the line," he said in a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "Once you had that, you were set."
As recently as September 2025 he assisted Hollywood heavyweights Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter (playing Vladimir) with their highly publicised Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot. He shared his invaluable first-hand expertise from having worked directly alongside Samuel Beckett, with the stars helping them map out their roles and unpack the history of the play.
Tributes
Tributes flooded in for the star following the news of his death. Theatre critic Charles McNulty who penned an obituary for the star shared it with a touching message. "I thought Alan might find a way to live forever. I wrote this appreciation with love and deep respect," he said.
A former colleague commented: "I LOVED working with Alan. One of the all-time greats in the theatre."
A third friend chimed in: "Ahhhh Alan what a beautiful soul … loved working with him in Pinters No Man's Land and seeing him in so many different plays in & around LA especially Waiting For Godot … God speed young fella."
