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.

Israeli actor and singer Chaim Topol, best known for his performance as Tevye in the musical and film Fiddler on the Roof, has died in Tel Aviv, aged 87.

Topol truly was a talent and infectious musical presence, that enriched us all. In the musical’s most famous song, ‘If I Were a Rich Man’, Tevye, reflects on his labour-intensive, humble life, musing on a life of wealth and comfort. In 2015, Topol received Israel’s highest cultural honour; the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement. This began with him becoming a member of the Nahal entertainment troupe. After the film, Topol was continuously cast as an on-stage Tevye, including on London’s West End. The town buzzes with Jewish community and traditions, with the constant threat of displacement from the tsar.

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.

Chaim Topol, a leading Israeli actor who charmed generations of movie- and theatre-watchers with his portrayal of Tevye, the long-suffering and charismatic ...

Topol played the part more than 3,500 times on stage, most recently in 2009. How many people in my profession are known worldwide?" "How many people are known for one part? After years of playing Tevye on stage in London and on Broadway, he scored the lead role in the 1971 Norman Jewison-directed film version, winning the Golden Globe award for lead actor and being nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award. Topol got his start in acting in a theatrical troupe in the Israeli army in the 1950s, where he met his future wife, Galia. More recently in 2015, he was celebrated for his contributions to film and culture with the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, his country's most prestigious honour.

Oscar-nominated actor, an Israel Prize laureate, gained global recognition for his role as the grumbling 'Fiddler on the Roof' milkman, whom he played over ...

He said goodbye to the character with a farewell tour across the US in 2009, revealing that he had acted as Tevye more than 3,500 times on stage. When director Norman Jewison was looking to cast Tevye for the film adaptation, he flew to the UK to watch Topol’s performance and was won over, casting him in what would become a critical and commercial success known around the world. Topol landed the part, premiering in the role in 1967 and ultimately playing several hundred shows as Tevye. The film became a smash hit locally, won best foreign film at the Golden Globes and became Israel’s first-ever nomination for an Oscar in the international film category. But it was his 1964 role in the film “Sallah Shabati” that first gained Topol serious attention, both domestically and internationally. After his release, he joined a theatre group, appearing in multiple productions before his first film role, the 1961 drama “I Like Mike.”

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."

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.

Known worldwide by his last name alone, Chaim Topol, star of Fiddler on the Roof, has died in the city of his birth, aged 87.

Topol made his English-language film debut in the Kirk Douglas-led production Cast a Giant Shadow. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 1991. Topol played the role of the long-suffering milkman Tevye in cities across the world and did so more than 3,500 times over five decades.

Veteran actor Chaim Topol, best known for Fiddler on the Roof, has died, aged 87. He died after a battle with Alzheimer's disease in Tel Aviv.

He was only 30 when he played the middle-aged father of three teenager daughters but went on to more than 3500 performances, including in Australia in 1997-98 and 2005-06. Veteran actor Chaim Topol, best known for Fiddler on the Roof, has died, aged 87. Veteran actor Chaim Topol, best known for Fiddler on the Roof, has died.

The actor who played Tevye in the 1971 film brought the struggles of a generation to life and helped the children of Jewish immigrants understand their ...

As the inhabitants of Anatevka packed their meagre belongings and left their village in search of a better life, I was struck with a sense of relief that, when my ancestors had been in that very position, they’d headed for the UK – and not France or Holland or even Germany, where far worse was yet to come. It felt as if a piece of the puzzle of who I was, a piece I’d never even known was missing, had finally clicked into place. Sitting in a chilly classroom in the synagogue that Sunday morning, I watched in genuine wonder as a world that was once completely unknown to me came to life in sepia tones and vivid performances. And in Golde, his wife, I saw my mother; standing over the Shabbat candles in the home that she, too, had lovingly created for us. I can still remember the first time, now 30-odd years ago, that I saw the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler – a rite of passage. Renowned for his portrayal of Tevye, the protagonist of the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Topol came to represent the archetypal Ashkenazi Jewish patriarch, yiddle-diddling his way into the collective consciousness.

A memorial ceremony was held in the presence of Chaim Topol's coffin and he was remembered by friends and admirers.

He was part of Salah Shabati and Fiddler on the Roof, and the director of the latter said that he chose Topol when he was young because he saw in him 'an actor who was proud to be Jewish.' Topol was at the top, always on the roof of the world. "Chaim brought gifts and respect to this country," said Gabi Armani, who was with Topol in the Nahal band and their Green Onion band later on. Topol was a star in the Nahal band, commander of the band, who knew how to be silly mainly in the company of Uri Zohar. Beyond being an actor, singer, songwriter and illustrator, Chaim really cared about what was happening with the Israeli people which he expressed through involvement in social activities and volunteering." Zohar added that "Chaim Topol was no doubt the good Israeli. "It was his legacy and maybe his biggest and most important gift," said Zorer. "Chaim was an actor who left a great stamp on us, and his works will be remembered forever, etched into Israeli culture," he said. "It will continue for years to come with sick children coming to the village. "Topol had a very big soul," she said. Dad was released." He had a blessed path, and maybe it was even know from the beginning. "The end really limited him, this sickness was sad to see.