Chaim Topol

Israeli actor and singer Chaim Topol, best known for his role as Tevye the dairyman in the musical 'Fiddler on the Roof', has died at the age of 87 in ...

while watching his daughters heading out to make their own choices in life. Register for free to Reuters and know the full story His first on-screen role was in "I Like Mike" in 1961, and his part in the Israeli comedy film Sallah Shabbati in 1964 won him his first Golden Globe, for most promising male newcomer.

Wide acclaim for the role of Tevye helped make him, according to one newspaper, “Israel's most famous export since the Jaffa orange.”

“I wanted a third-generation European actor for the role, a third-generation man who understood the background,” Mr. (He would make a similar decision in 1991, with the outbreak of the Persian Gulf war, leaving the Broadway revival to be with his family in Tel Aviv.) The recognition came both for his acting and his charitable work, notably helping to found Jordan River Village, a holiday camp in Israel for seriously ill children from all ethnic and religious backgrounds. Now, as I pass the age of 55 by 20 years, I feel totally free to jump and dance as much as I feel like.” “At 29, I knew I had to restrain some muscles to make sure I didn’t suddenly jump in a way that destroyed the image of an elderly man,” he told The Boston Globe in 2009, in the midst of a multicity United States tour of the show. “Zero was going wild,” he recalled in a 2008 interview with The Telegraph, a British newspaper. But on returning to Israel, Topol saw the Tel Aviv production and had a change of heart. Topol, who by his own account, knew “about 50 words of English” then, had learned the songs phonetically from the Broadway cast album. His parents, Jacob, a plasterer, and Rel Goldman Topol, a seamstress, had fled shtetlach in Eastern Europe to settle in Palestine in the early 1930s. There, Jacob Topol became a member of the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization. “It takes you to a wide range of emotions, happiness to sadness, anger to love.” The film, for which Topol earned an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award, made him a star.

It is for ever associated with the irrepressible Israeli actor Chaim Topol, who has died aged 87. He played Tevye in the 1967 London premiere of Fiddler on the ...

[the Haganah](http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/haganah.html) against the British in the war of independence, and Rel (nee Goldman), a seamstress. [a delightful revival of Gigi](http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/aug/16/gigi.theatre) by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in the Open Air theatre at Regent’s Park. He helped to found the Jordan River Village, a holiday camp in lower Galilee for chronically ill children of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, which opened in 2012. In the army, Topol, who had two younger sisters, joined an entertainment troupe and then started his own satirical revue company, Batzal Yarok (“The Spring Onion” – “To convey the idea of something fresh, sharp and spicy,” he said). Topol returned to London in the role in 1983, and toured extensively in the US in the late 1980s, when Rosalind Harris, who played the eldest of his five daughters in the film, played his wife. He was already well known for the character of Sallah Shabati, an immigrant weighed down with troubles and children who somehow overcomes all adversity. When he played Tevye again at the London Palladium in 1994, he was still only 58. [Joseph Stein](http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/oct/26/joseph-stein-obituary) from the stories of Sholem Aleichem, the insinuating songs written by Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock. He always deferred to Mostel’s genius as Tevye, and was surprised to be cast in the film. But he brought a passion and warmth to his signature role – which he played on stage in more than 3,500 performances, he estimated – that had possibly eluded the more clownish and hard-edged Mostel. Topol won a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination in the role, attending the Oscar ceremony on leave from the Israeli army. The sight of Tevye the milkman shaking his upper torso and stomping out his yearning, melodic, future subjunctive – “If I were a rich man, yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum / All day long I’d biddy biddy bum / If I were a wealthy man …

Chaim Topol won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of an immigrant to Israel, stepped off the stage in London to fight for his countrt.

Topol was board chair of the Jordan Youth Village, modeled after Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Camp in the United States, until his death. The Ephraim Kishon film was Israel’s first Academy Award nominee in the foreign language film category and earned Topol a Golden Globe for best new actor. Israel’s swift defeat of an alliance of enemies caused the world to notice the young country and the actor who took part in its victory. In 1967, he appeared as the lead character in London’s staging of “Fiddler on the Roof,” which had been a breakout hit on Broadway three years before. 9 on the British charts — besting Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” in July 1967. In his early 30s at the time, he wowed audiences and critics with his portrayal of a character decades older.

The acclaimed actor and singer also appeared in Flash Gordon and the Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

In 2005, Topol was voted the 90th-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet. But he was granted leave so he could attend the ceremony in Los Angeles. "Anyone who ever plays Tevye should be thankful to Zero Mostel," Topol was once quoted as saying. He was one of the first global Israeli celebrities and a very sweet and modest man. To coin one of Fiddler's most famous lines - To life, to life, l'chaim! RIP to a great."

The Israeli actor became synonymous with the character of Tevye — a role he played more than 3,500 times around the world.

[I was brought up in a kibbutz](https://apnews.com/article/actor-fiddle-on-roof-tevye-israel-golden-globe-theater-film-3f5112cc5dac6a0be4d85028842f75c8)," he told AP in 2015. "It takes you to a wide range of emotions, happiness to sadness, anger to love." The movie was also the first film from Israel to receive an [best parts ever written](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/06/metro/sidney-topol-broadcasting-visionary-beacon-peace-dies-90/) for a male actor in the musical theater," he told The Boston Globe in 1989. [Kirk Douglas](https://people.com/tag/kirk-douglas/)), Galileo, Flash Gordon, and in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only. [Golden Globe](https://people.com/tag/golden-globe-awards/) for his role in the movie adaptation of Fiddler in 1972, and later graced stages around the world, including in London and on Broadway, as the beloved Russian milkman and patriarch.

Mr. Topol is most associated with his decades-long relationship with Fiddler on the Roof .

In June 2022, Mr. In 1983, he reprised the role on the West End, and returned to the role for a fifth time in 1989 for a 30-city US tour, the first time he performed the role at the same age as the character. He never let go of his original dreams of being a visual artist, illustrating approximately 25 books in both Hebrew and English. Topol varied, with the likely number being in the vicinity of 4,000 performances, not including the film adaptation and its various takes. He embarked on what was intended to be a farewell US tour in 2009, now in his 70s, but was forced to bow out during the Boston engagement due to a shoulder injury. In 1990, he starred in a Broadway revival and received a Tony nomination, bringing the production back to London in 1994 followed by another tour. In 1968, Mr. In order to age Mr. Mr. Topol began performing the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, with which he would remain associated for the rest of his life. Upon his return to England, he continued in the role for 430 performances. The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Topol originally intended to become a commercial artist before joining the Nahal entertainment troupe during his mandatory stint in the Israeli army.

The Israeli actor received both Oscar and Tony nominations for his performance as the comic milkman Tevye.

[wrote](https://twitter.com/joshgad/status/1633724649963151360), “There is no way to overstate how much this man & this performance meant to me. [wrote](https://twitter.com/Cary_Elwes/status/1633713054172020738), “What joys I experienced as a child watching him work & spending time with his family. A great husband to his wife, Galia, and a great father to his children. [#Topol](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Topol?src=hashtag_click) is a large reason why I became an actor. Born in Tel Aviv in 1935, Topol (who was known by just his surname for most of his professional life) is best known for bringing the role of Tevye to life in multiple iterations of the musical Fiddler on the Roof. He would play the role of Tevye some 3,500 times onstage, according to the