Chaim Topol, Fiddler on the Roof actor, dead at 87

Chaim Topol, Israel’s first international movie star, played the role of Tevye the Milkman in Fiddler on the Roof more than 3500 times.

Fiddler on the Roof star Chaim Topol has died, aged 87.

Chaim Topol, the Israeli actor and singer, who for four decades played the leading man in Fiddler on the Roof, has died at the age of 87.

Topol died at his home in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, surrounded by family and friends. In a statement announcing his death, Israel president Isaac Herzog 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.”

Israel’s first international movie star, Topol portrayed the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in Galileo (1975); starred in the cult Mike Hodges’ sci-fi film Flash Gordon (1980); and played an ally to Roger Moore’s James Bond in For Your Eyes Only (1981).

His major breakthrough was in director Ephraim Kishon’s Sallah Shabati (1964), the first Israeli film to be nominated for best foreign film at the Academy Awards. For his performance, he won a Golden Globe for most promising male newcomer.

Chaim Topol as Tevye in the fim version of Fiddler on the Roof. Picture: Getty Images

But it was his role of Tevye the Milkman in Fiddler on the Roof, which, by his own estimation, he played more than 3500 times, that he is best loved for.

He was 30 when he first performed as Tevye, stepping in for actor Shmuel Rodensky, who had taken ill, in a 1966 Israeli production. Producer of the original Broadway show, Harold Prince, had seen Topol in Sallah Shabati, and invited him to audition for the lead in the London production of Fiddler as it moved from Broadway in 1966.

“I knew no English. I studied the songs. I sang If I Were a Rich Man and then another song from Fiddler. It was the first audition in my life,” Topol said.

He was cast again as Tevye in Norman Jewison’s 1971 film adaptation of the play.