Joanna Merlin, Original Star of Broadway's “Fiddler on the Roof”, Dead at 92

Joanna Merlin maintained dual careers in acting and casting on both Broadway and the screen for more than six decades

Joanna Merlin, the actor and casting director best known for originating the role of Tzeitel in the Broadway musical Fiddler On The Roof, has died. She was 92.

Merlin's death was announced Monday on New York University's Tisch Graduate School of Acting's Instagram page. She had worked as a member of the school's faculty since 1998 and "taught Michael Chekhov's Psychological Gesture work as well as Career and Camera classes to generations of our actors," according to a caption written on the account's post.

The Michael Chekhov Association, of which Merlin founded and was the president emeritus, wrote on its website that Merlin died Sunday in Los Angeles. A cause of death was not immediately available.

"Joanna was an actress, master Chekhov teacher, and former casting director for Harold Prince, Stephen Sondheim, Bernardo Bertolucci, and James Ivory," the NYU-associated account wrote in a caption. "She cast the original Broadway productions of Sondheim’s Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, and Merrily We Roll Along, as well as Evita, Candide, and On the Twentieth Century."

"Joanna will be deeply missed at Grad Acting, by the Chekhov community, and by the many people she touched through her artistry," the caption continued.

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Merlin was born Joann Ratner on July 15, 1931 in Chicago. She changed her name early in her show business career, which began as she studied with Michael Chekhov in the 1950s, according to Deadline and the Chekhov Association's website. She was the legendary acting teacher's last living student, according to the association.

Her first onscreen credit was in the 1956 religious drama The Ten Commandments; she appeared in a handful of more film and television roles before originating the role of Tzeitzel in Broadway's Fiddler on the Roof in 1964.

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After Fiddler, Merlin straddled an entertainment career that involved both acting on film, television and the stage, and casting work on many of the late Sondheim's musicals. She notably appeared in movies like 1979's All That Jazz, 1980's Fame and the 1988 Julia Roberts movie Mystic Pizza, among others, through the late 20th century, all the while working on Broadway, originating roles in Shelter, The Survivor and Solomon's Child along the way.

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Merlin also worked as a casting director for movies like 1986's Big Trouble in Little China, 1987's The Last Emperor and 1995's Jefferson in Paris, among others. In recent years, she held down a recurring role as Judge Lena Petrovsky on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2000-2011, and appeared in episodes of The Good Wife and Homeland in the 2010s. Her last onscreen credit was for a 2020 appearance in the series Smartphone Theatre.

“At any time today, perform the Actor's March and play the Marseille," a statement from the Michael Chekhov Association shared within the NYU Instagram account's post announcing Merlin's death reads. "This was a song Michael Chekhov played for Joanna and the other actors in Los Angeles at the beginning of their classes. It served as an invitation to cross the threshold into a creative space. Joanna often reminisced about it with a smile.”

Merlin was married to her husband David Dretzin from 1964 until his death in 2006, per an obituary published by his alma mater Reed College's school magazine at the time. She is survived by the couple's two daughters, actor Julie Dretzin and producer Rachel Dretzin.

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