Alexandre Joseph Goudsmit (;''Goudsmit'' in isolation: . 15 March 1913 in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

– 10 December 1999 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

) was a Dutch-Belgian actor. Goudsmit's father, a diamond worker, was Jewish and his mother

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

. He became famous in 1966 for playing Tevye in ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the ...

'', which role he performed some 1100 times in the Netherlands and in London. He played many characters on Dutch television, among others in the popular youth series ''Q en Q'' (1974) and ''Thomas en Senior'' (1985–88). From 1984 to 1999 he played Grandpa Lex on '' Sesamstraat'', the Dutch version of

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...

. Goudsmit was one of the artists who recorded the song ''Shalom from Holland'' (written by

Simon Hammelburg Simon Hammelburg (Amsterdam, February 28, 1952 – Marbella, June 15, 2022) was a Dutch entertainer, songwriter, journalist, and Holocaust educator. He died in Marbella 15 June 2022. Prior to the first Gulf War (1991) Hammelburg produced th ...

and Ron Klipstein) as a token of solidarity to the Israeli people, threatened by missiles from Iraq, during the first Gulf War in 1991. When Goudsmit died as the consequences of a stroke, instead of doing an episode dealing with his death, along the lines of Mr. Hooper's death, the producers addressed the issue on the program following ''Sesamstraat'', called ''

Jeugdjournaal Jeugdjournaal (; "youth news programme") is a Dutch television news programme produced by the Dutch public service broadcaster NOS for children. The programme has been on air since 1981. The main evening programme airs at 7:00 pm ( CET), runnin ...

'' (Youth News). The program aired a compilation of his best appearances on the show and commented on his death. Goudsmit had told producers that he wanted to stay on ''Sesamstraat'' even after his death, so the latest scenes he taped were still used on the next season. During this season, he was slowly phased out of the show and Aart Staartjes, who played the grumpy neighbor "Meneer Aart", became the grandfather figure.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goudsmit, Lex 1913 births 1999 deaths Dutch male film actors Dutch people of Jewish descent Dutch male stage actors Dutch male television actors Dutch children's writers Dutch painters Jewish artists Jewish painters Jewish Dutch writers Male actors from Brussels 20th-century Dutch male actors Dutch male musical theatre actors 20th-century Dutch male singers