Israel’s most famous film star will always be remembered for his acclaimed performance as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof

Chaim Topol was born in Tel Aviv. His father was a Russian immigrant and worked as a plasterer. His mother was a seamstress. His first film appearances came in the early 1960s and he made his breakthrough in the 1964 Israeli film Sallah Shabati, alongside George Segal, for which he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. Two years later, he made his English-language film debut in Cast a Giant Shadow.

But his stage career took off when he played the lead role in the Israeli production of Fiddler on the Roof in 1966, which led to him playing the part in London for a year (he was chosen over Leo McKern), breaking off to serve in the Six-Day War. His recording of 'If I Were a Rich Man' also rose to number five in the British pop charts.

Topol was then chosen over the more renowned Zero Mostel (who famously played the part on Broadway) to play Tevye in Norman Jewison’s Hollywood adaptation. According to Alisa Solomon in her book Wonder of Wonders: A Cultural History of Fiddler on the Roof: “Jewison felt Mostel lacked reality. He was too big, too American.” The director wanted a much more realistic feel for his film, especially for the part of the dairyman. Mostel was religiously observant and spoke Yiddish, but Topol was a Hebrew-speaking sabra (Jew born in Israel) and was still in his 30s. Critics agreed. Pauline Kael, writing in The New Yorker, said Topol’s "brute vitality" helped to "clear away the sticky folk stuff". Fiddler went on to become the top-grossing film of the year and was part of Jewish wave of Hollywood films in the 1960s, which included Goodbye Columbus, The Graduate and Woody Allen’s early films.

For his on-screen portrayal of Tevye, Topol received another Golden Globe, this time for Best Actor, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He reappeared in the West End production in 1983 and in a Broadway revival in 1990-91. It’s estimated that he performed the role more than 3,500 times.

Topol appeared in more than 30 films and, apart from Tevye, he is best known for playing Dr Hans Zarkov in Flash Gordon (1980) and Milos Columbo in James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981). He also featured in a BBC Two series, Topol’s Israel (1985). In addition to acting, he wrote three books and illustrated more than 20. In 1967, he also founded Variety Israel, an organisation helping children with special needs, and later co-founded another charity to help Arab and Jewish children with life-threatening diseases.

Along with the musical duo Esther & Abi Ofarim and a new generation of Israeli writers, including Amos Oz, whose first novels were published in the mid-1960s, and SY Agnon, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1966, Topol symbolised a new Israeli culture.

Topol died on Wednesday 8 March, aged 87. His death was announced by Israel’s president Isaac Herzog, who described him as a "gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and especially entered deep into our hearts".

By David Herman

Header photo: Chaim Topol in Tel Aviv, 1969 © Dan Hadani Collection