Theodore Bikel, an Emmy award-winning actor and former leader of Actors' Equity Association, the pre-eminent U.S. union for stage actors, is the pre-Labor Day speaker at Cornell University Aug. 31.

Bikel's pre-Labor Day public lecture is titled "The Artist as Laborer." It will take place Thursday, Aug. 31, at noon in the Biotechnology Building first floor auditorium on the Cornell campus. The talk, which is sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations, is free and open to the public.

Members of the media are invited to talk briefly with Bikel at about 12:45 p.m., following the talk.

ILR Professor Richard Hurd, the event's organizer, said that Bikel was chosen to be this year's pre-Labor Day speaker because of his leadership in unions of professional workers. "He has a strong presence, and when he talks he captures everyone's attention," said Hurd, who participated with Bikel at a recent seminar of labor leaders and scholars.

A vocal and active supporter of workers' right to organize, Bikel is president of the Associated Actors and Artistes of America (known to its members as the 4As). He was president of Actors' Equity from 1973 to 1982. Actors' Equity is a branch of the 4As. It negotiates wages and working conditions for 40,000 actors and stage managers in the professional theater throughout the United States.

Hurd said Bikel's appearance is particularly timely in light of the current strike by members of the Screen Actors' Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). "Thirty thousand actors and actresses are on strike to preserve their ability to earn a living," said Hurd. "These are not the highly paid handful of stars but the less visible bulk of acting professionals who depend on residuals from television commercials for their daily bread and butter."

Producers are seeking to change the way actors are paid, from the current small fee each time a commercial airs to a one-time fee, he explained.

As head of Actors' Equity, Bikel fought for a greater awareness of the interaction between government and working artists. "It was always an uphill fight and still is," he said. He spoke out for the cause in Washington, D.C., as early as the 1960s and secured government subsidized housing for actors in New York City under Title 8.

In addition to his labor involvement, Bikel is considered one of the most versatile actors and performers living today. His television career spans 35 years, and his roles on TV cover an amazing range of characterizations: from Henry Kissinger in "The Final Days" to Worf's adoptive father on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to a Holocaust survivor battling memories on "L.A. Law." He has guest-starred on such series and specials as "Murder She Wrote," "Dynasty," "Falcon Crest," "Victory At Entebbe," "Paper Chase" and "Twilight Zone." He won an Emmy award in 1988 for his starring role in "Harris Newmark," a PBS special.

Bikel has appeared in 35 films, among them "The Defiant Ones." The Oscar-winning 1958 film starred Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis as an interracial pair of escaped convicts chained to each other. Bikel received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role as a bigoted small-town sheriff. Other notable film roles for Bikel: Zoltan Karpathy, the Hungarian language teacher in "My Fair Lady"; and the Russian submarine commander marooned in a New England coast town in the 1966 comedy "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming."

Bikel has played the stage role of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" more than 1,650 times over the past 34 years. He also created the role of Baron von Trapp in "The Sound of Music."

An accomplished singer, musician and raconteur as well, Bikel makes 40 concert appearances a year on average. He popularized international folks songs in the 1950s and '60s, has performed with major symphony orchestras and opera companies, and recorded 20 albums.

Bikel was born in Vienna in 1924, immigrated to Israel at the age of 13 and went on to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He became an American citizen in 1961, and in 1977 he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the National Council for the Arts.

In keeping with the ILR School's pre-Labor Day tradition, classes at the school will be suspended for two hours in the afternoon so that students and faculty can attend Bikel's lecture and the picnic lunch that follows. Later that afternoon Bikel will take part in a special seminar involving labor and theater arts faculty members. For further information about Bikel's visit, contact Hurd at (607) 255-2765.