M.C. “Mickey” Brandon, popular singer and actor who was often called “St. Louis’s own Tevye” for his many portrayals of the lead character in Fiddler on the Roof, died Thursday, July 3, 2008 from complications of diabetes and pneumonia at Dubuis Hospital of St. Louis in Chesterfield. He was 83 and a resident of Creve Coeur.

Mr. Brandon, long a popular entertainer in St. Louis, who often performed gratis for B’nai B’rith, nursing homes and charitable venues, first portrayed Tevye the Dairyman in Fiddler on the Roof on the stage of the theater at the St. Louis Community College in Florissant Valley in 1971. He became as identified on the local scene as Tevye as much as Zero Mostel or Topol on the national stage and screen.

Tommy Goldenberg, himself a longtime charitable entertainer in St. Louis, who often worked with Mr. Brandon, said Mr. Brandon compared with the great stars of Broadway and Hollywood who brought Tevye to life. “We had in our midst ‘a resident Tevye,’ a lifelong St. Louisan, who has been singing songs from Fiddler for about 35 years.

Another longtime friend and fellow singer-performer of Mr. Brandon is Mark Richman, who shared a similar admiration of his friend. “If there was only one person to play the king in The King and I, it would be Yul Brynner. In the Wizard of Oz, only Judy Garland could be Dorothy. Locally, in Fiddler on the Roof, it could only have been Mickey Brandon. I knew Mickey for at least 40-plus years, going way back to the days of his ‘Bitz and Schticks’ routines with his partner Sid Wasserman. They were truly the Martin and Lewis of their day.”

Mr. Brandon was not limited to Tevye songs from Fiddler in his shows. In what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch called his “rich baritone voice,” he sang works by Frank Sinatra, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein and Irving Berlin.

In 1974, Mr. Brandon opened Mickey Brandon Presents at the Helio Colony Hotel at 7730 Bonhomme Avenue, which is now the Sheraton Clayton Plaza. He wanted a club that catered to a more mature patron. He entertained at the club for about a year. In the 1960s, Mr. Brandon performed at Marty’s in the old Gaslight Square.

Born in St. Louis on June 3, 1925, Mr. Brandon and his late brother, Ralph, operated the former Brandon Brothers Furniture Store with locations in Wellston and Salem, Ill.

Funeral services for Mr. Brandon were held last Sunday at Congregation Shaare Emeth, where Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman officiated along with Cantor Seth Warner. As guests came into the sanctuary to pay their respects, Ernie Hayes, the longtime organist for the St. Louis Cardinals and a longtime friend of Mr. Brandon, played several piano selections from Fiddler on the Roof, including “Sunrise, Sunset,” “If I Were a Rich Man” and “To Life, To Life, L’Chaim!”

Rabbi Stiffman warmly recalled Mr. Brandon as a longtime friend of over 40 years. “We shared so many blessings with Mickey, so many laughs with family members and friends. I speak these words not as his rabbi, but as his friend and admirer. We are very grateful for the years of laughter and joy he brought to our lives. We cherish that lifelong companionship. May his memory and his example inspire us to service and kindness.”

Rabbi Stiffman added, “The song ‘If I Were a Rich Man.’ Can we hear Mickey singing those words? Can we visualize his stance, the smile on his face, the gleam in his eye? He was Tevye. He was Mickey — one of the most unique, earthy, wonderful people any of us has ever known.” He added, “Mickey was a rich man — rich in love, in humor, in song, in family devotion, in friendship, in life. He made us laugh every day of his life. And we will laugh at some of his memories today. But we also cry, because we are going to miss him very, very much.”

Mr. Brandon’s son, Hank Brandon, offered remarks at the service, thanking Mr. Brandon’s many friends for attending. “Dad loved so much being with friends and family. My father made us laugh and smile all the time, though these past few months were very difficult for him. If you knew him, close your eyes, and like me, you will hear him singing ‘If I Were a Rich Man.’ My Dad was very rich, though we did not have a lot of money. But he was rich in family and friends.”

Following the funeral service at Congregation Shaare Emeth, burial was at United Hebrew Cemetery on Canton Avenue.

Among the survivors are his wife of 60 years, Rosetta Olevitch Brandon; three sons, Henry “Hank” Brandon of Denver; Frank Brandon of Salem, Ill. and Steve Brandon of Clifton, Va.; a daughter, Linda Brandon of Bellefontaine Neighbors; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association; the Missouri Society for the Blind; the Salem Cultural Society or to the Centralia Cultural Society.