Actor Alan Mandell has died at the age of 98. He played Rabbi Marshak in the Coen Brothers' 2009 film A Serious Man, widely considered one of the greatest movies of the 21st century.
Mandell died in Los Angeles on October 13 of natural causes, his family has confirmed. His last TV role was in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and he also appeared in The Six Million Dollar Man and The Man From Atlantis.
Career highlights and stage acclaim
Mandell's career began in 1954 when he started working with the San Francisco Actor's Workshop while visiting his sister. He won acclaim for his stage work, particularly his interpretations of Samuel Beckett's plays.
Beckett himself directed him first in 1957, and later in Waiting for Godot and Endgame in Europe in 1985. The pair remained 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," Mandell said in a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "Once you had that, you were set."
Recent work and final roles
As recently as September 2025, Mandell assisted Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter with their Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot, sharing his expertise from working directly with Beckett.
His film roles include 2001's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, 2006's Shortbus, and 2019's Velvet Buzzsaw opposite Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2020, he appeared as Fr. Angus in three episodes of Anthem: Homunculus opposite Glenn Close and Cynthia Erivo.
Tributes from colleagues
Theatre critic Charles McNulty, who wrote an obituary for Mandell, shared it with a message: "I thought Alan might find a way to live forever. I wrote this appreciation with love and deep respect."
A former colleague said: "I LOVED working with Alan. One of the all-time greats in the theatre." Another friend added: "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."
