'Fiddler on the Roof' actor Chaim Topol dies at 87
March 9, 2023
Known internationally as Tevye the Milkman in "Fiddler on the Roof," Israeli actor Chaim Topol has died at his home in Israel on Wednesday.
Topol's death at the age 87 was made public in a statement in which Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, praised him as "one of the most outstanding Israeli actors," who "filled the movie screens with his presence and above all entered deep into our hearts." Herzog called him "a giant of Israeli culture" who "we'll miss dearly."
Benny Gantz, Israel's former minister of defense, also paid tribute to Topol for helping Israelis connect to their roots. "We laughed and cried at the same time over the deepest wounds of Israeli society," he tweeted.
Topol was considered the first Israeli actor to make an international career. Beyond his trademark role, he starred in more than 30 movies, including "Galileo" (1975), "Flash Gordon" (1980) and the 1981 James Bond "For Your Eyes Only" alongside Roger Moore.
From humble beginnings to stardom
Born in 1935, Topol was raised in a working-class neighborhood in Tel Aviv. His father was a Russian-born plasterer and his mother, a seamstress.
At age 14, he started working as a printer's apprentice by day and continued his education at night school.
He lived on a kibbutz for a year, before being drafted to the military, where his acting career kicked off as part of an entertainment troupe in the Israeli army. This is also where he met his future wife, Galia. The couple married in 1956 and had three children. Topol also started a theater company in the kibbutz where he first settled with his wife.
Topol's international breakthrough came with his lead role in the 1964 hit Israeli film "Sallah Shabati," a social satire by Ephraim Kishon portraying the struggles of a family of Middle-Eastern Jewish immigrants living in a "ma'abara." The infamous transit camps in Israel in the 1950s were built to accommodate the flux of immigrants arriving to the young state and a symbol of hardship for Jewish immigrants from Arab countries.
It was the first Israeli film to earn an Academy Award nomination, and also gave Topol his first Golden Globe Award, as most promising newcomer. The film opened and closed the Berlin Film Festival.
Role of a lifetime
Topol's lifetime role arrived in 1966 with "Fiddler on the Roof," a musical play based on short stories written by Sholem Aleichem (titled "Tevye the Dairyman" or sometimes "Tevye's Daughters"). The actor played Tevye, a pious Jewish milkman from a small shtetl in Imperial Russia, who struggles to maintain his family's cultural traditions in a world of instability and change.
After years of playing Tevye on stage in London and on Broadway, he scored the lead role in 1971 in the film version directed by Norman Jewison. Topol was only in his 30s, while the character he was portraying was much older. This was nevertheless successfully achieved with the help of heavy makeup and costume work.
As a descendant of Russian Jews, Topol also felt that his personal background helped him understand his character and better embody Tevye.
Over the years, he aged into the role which he kept playing on stage — more than 3,500 times — until 2009.
Israel Prize for lifetime achievement
Beyond acting, Topol also donated his time to charitable causes and was chairman of the board of Jordan River Village, a free overnight camp for Middle Eastern children with disabilities, chronic or severe illnesses. The star said in an interview to press agency Associated Press that he found his charity work even more fulfilling than running from one role to another.
In 2015, he was awarded with the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, the state's most prestigious honor. This was also when his early stages of Alzheimer's began. His son Omer recently told an Israeli news outlet that his father was an "amazing actor who developed all kinds of tactics to cover up the problems that began to arise" through the neurodegenerative disease.
In a interview with Associated Press following his Israeli Prize, Topol noted that he remained surprised to see how many people worldwide recognized him. The fact that his fame was tied to "one part" didn't disturb him: "How many people in my profession are known worldwide?" he asked. "I'm not complaining."
Despite his worldwide fame, he never forgot his modest beginnings. As he stated in that 2015 interview, "I wasn't brought up in Hollywood. I was brought up in a kibbutz."
Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier