Chaim Topol, the spunky Israeli actor and singer who played Tevye the milkman season after season in Fiddler on the roof on stages around the world and in an Oscar-nominated turn in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film adaptation, has passed away. He turned 87.
the associated press, referring to Israeli leadersreported that Topol passed away in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Topol, Israel’s first international movie star, also played the famous Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei Galileo (1975); an American scientist, Dr. Hans Zarkov, in the cult sci-fi classic Flash Gordon (1980); and Milos Columbo, a Greek smuggler and ally of Roger Moore’s James Bond Only for your eyes (1981).
As Polish family man Berel Jastrow, he was central to the plot of two critically acclaimed 1980s ABC miniseries, The winds of war And War and memoryboth based on novels by Herman Wouk.
In a combination any matchmaker would surely appreciate, Topol is estimated to have interacted with Tevye more than 3,500 times over more than four decades, beginning with a Hebrew production in his homeland when he was 30.
He also played the role of the Jewish dairy farmer and father of five daughters – singing signature songs like “Sunrise, Sunset”, “Tradition” and “If I Were a Rich Man” – in the West End in the mid-1960s and on Broadway. in 1990-91 and received a Tony nomination in the process.
“How many people are known for one role? How many people in my profession are known worldwide? So I’m not complaining,” he says said in a 2015 interview. “Sometimes I am surprised when I come to China or when I come to Tokyo or when I come to France or wherever I come and the clerk at the immigration office says, ‘Topol, Topol, are you Topol? ‘ So yes, a lot of people have seen it [Fiddler]and that’s not a bad thing.”
Chaim Topol, the eldest of three children, was born in Tel Aviv on September 9, 1935. His father, Jacob, was a plasterer and his mother, Imrela, a seamstress. He worked as a printer for a newspaper while taking evening classes in high school, then lived in a kibbutz for a year.
He gained experience as an entertainer in the Israeli army, where he acted and sang in a traveling theater company. After the service, he honed his skills by performing for three years across the country in a kibbutz theater troupe he and his friends had founded in 1957.
Topol had a big break when he was cast as a Middle Eastern immigrant struggling to provide for his family in Israel Salah Shabati (1964). A huge hit domestically, the social satire was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and Topol, then 29, received a Golden Globe for Most Promising Male Newcomer for playing a character in his 50s. (Topol had played the title role in a play while in the military.)
Two years later, he made his English-language film debut alongside Kirk Douglas in Cast a giant shadow (1966), playing a Bedouin leader in the drama set during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
At the urging of friends, Topol came to New York to see Zero Mostel star as Sholem Aleichems Tevye in the original 1964-72 Broadway production of Hal Prince’s Fiddler on the roof, with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and direction and choreography by Jerome Robbins. He then played the milkman in Israel for 10 weeks, replacing Shmuel Rodensky, who had fallen ill.
Prince had seen Topol enter Salah Shabati and invited him to test for the lead in the London production of fiddler when it moved off Broadway in 1966.
“They couldn’t believe it was me when I went to the audition because I was too young! They were expecting Sallah, who was old. Not me!” Him said. “I didn’t know English. I studied the songs. I sang ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ and then finished another song fiddler. It was the first audition in my life.
“They asked how many times I had seen the show. I said maybe four times. They couldn’t understand how I knew all the moves, all the songs of the show. I said, ‘No, you don’t understand… I’m currently performing at Fiddler, in Tel Aviv!’
After being hired, he started using Topol after the British producers had trouble pronouncing his first name.
He landed the lead role in the movie version of Jewison at United Artists despite lobbying from Mostel, Rod Steiger, Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra to play the part. He was hired “probably because I was cheaper,” he said told The Jerusalem Post in 2013.
In his review, THR commented that Topol imbued his performance “with all the compassion, intensity and raw wit it demands. His speaking voice is magnificent, and if his singing voice is imperfect, it only seems befitting of the characterization.”
Fiddler on the roof was nominated for best picture and Topol for best actor, but The French connection and its star Gene Hackman prevailed on Oscar night. However, Topol did receive a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical.
His resume on the big screen was also included Before winter comes (1968) and into a turn opposite Mia Farrow The public eye (1972), directed by Carol Reed.
Topol last played Tevye on a stage in Boston in 2009, but had to leave the musical after a shoulder injury.
A year later he founded the Jordan River Village, where children with serious illnesses come to enjoy themselves. (His inspiration was Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall camps.) He also served on the board of directors of Variety Israel, a nonprofit organization that helps children with special needs, regardless of religion, race, or gender.
In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for lifetime achievement by his government.
Survivors include his wife Galia, whom he married in October 1956. They had three children, Omer, Adi and Anat.
