Joanna Merlin Dies: Original ‘Fiddler On The Roof’ Tzeitel, Longtime Judge On ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Was 92
deadline.comJoanna Merlin, whose acting career stretched from Broadway (she was the original Tzeitel in Fiddler On The Roof), film (she played the dance teacher Miss Berg in Alan Parker’s 1980 film Fame) and TV (Law & Order: SVU‘s Judge Lena Petrovsky on dozens of episodes) died Sunday in Los Angeles.
She was 92. Her death was announced on the Instagram page of the New York University Tisch Graduate Acting Program, where Merlin had been on the faculty since 1998. “Joanna was an actress, master Chekhov teacher, and former casting director for Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bernardo Bertolucci, and James Ivory,” the NYU message said, adding, “Joanna will be deeply missed at Grad Acting, by the Chekhov community, and by the many people she touched through her artistry.” As a casting director, Merlin was involved in numerous landmark Broadway productions written by Stephen Sondheim.
She was, for many years, Harold Prince’s go-to casting director. A cause of death was not immediately available. Born Joann Ratner in Chicago on July 15, 1931, she would change her name for a show business career that would soon find her performing on Broadway in three notable productions including the original 1960 staging of Becket starring Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn and the original 1961 production of A Far Country starring Kim Stanley.
But her breakthrough stage role came in 1964, when she was cast as the eldest daughter of milkman Tevye is what would become a major hit musical.
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