Alan Mandell

Alan Mandell, born Albert Mandell on December 27, 1927, in Toronto, Ontario, is a Canadian-American actor. He was raised in a Jewish family and began building his stage career in both Canada and the United States, establishing a presence in San Francisco's theater scene during the 1950s. In 1968, he legally changed his given name from Albert to Alan to avoid confusion with the notorious mobster Albert Anastasia.

Mandell's connection to the works of Samuel Beckett dates to 1957, when he appeared in a production of Waiting for Godot at the San Francisco Actor's Workshop. He later took on the role of Lucky in a production of Godot directed by Beckett himself, a distinction that cemented his reputation as a leading interpreter of Beckett's work across several decades of stage performance.

His Broadway career spanned from 1965 to 2006 and included appearances in The Merchant of Venice, Twelve Angry Men, and the comedy The Country Wife. Beyond Beckett, Mandell has performed in productions of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land and Arthur Miller's The Price. In 2007, he appeared as Juror #9 in a Los Angeles staging of Twelve Angry Men, directed by Scott Ellis and featuring Richard Thomas and George Wendt.

Mandell is also known to film audiences for his role as Rabbi Marshak in the Coen Brothers' 2009 film A Serious Man.