Alexandre Joseph "Lex" Goudsmit (; 15 March 1913 – 10 December 1999) was a Dutch-Belgian actor. Goudsmit's father, a diamond worker, was Jewish and his mother

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. He became famous in 1966 for playing

Tevye Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman (, ''Tevye der milkhiker'' ) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and their various adaptations, the most famous being the musical '' ...

in ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 19 ...

'', 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 television, 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 Worksh ...

. 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 , combatant2 ...

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 (; "Youth News Programme") is a Dutch television Children's news program, news programme produced by the Dutch public service broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting, NOS for children. The programme has been on air since 1981. The main evening ...

'' (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 Dutch 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