The Late Great Topol

Topol, who played milkman Tevye in both the stage and film versions of Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Dr. Hans Zarkov in the movie Flash Gordon (1980), died on March 8 2023 at the age of 87 after a long illness.

Chaim Topol was born on September 9 1935 in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. It was his elementary teacher, acclaimed children's author Yemima Avidar-Tchernovitz, who discovered his theatrical side and encouraged him to pursue the performing arts. As a teenager he worked at the newspaper Davar while taking high school classes at night. After graduating high school he lived in Kibbutz Geva. Afterwards he enlisted in the Israeli army, where he became a member of the Nahal entertainment troupe. Once his service was over, Topol performed throughout Israel with a kibbutz theatre group founded by he and his friends in 1957.

It was in 1964 that Topol made his film debut in I Like Mike in 1961. In the Sixties he appeared in the movies El Dorado (1963), Sallah Shabati (1964), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), Ervinka (1967), and Before Winter Comes (1968). It was in 1966 that he first played Tevye the Dairyman in the Israeli production of Fiddler on the Roof. In 1967 he played the role on the West End of London. He would play the role several more times in his career.

In the Seventies Topol produced the Broadway play Ipi-Tombi. He appeared in the films Ha-Tarnegol (1971), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Follow Me (1972), A Talent for Loving (1973), Galileo (1975), and Flash Gordon (1980). In the Eighties he appeared on television in the mini-series The Winds of War, Queenie, and War and Remembrance. He guest starred on the show Tales of Remembrance. He appeared in the movies For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Roman Behemshechim (1985). He reprised his role as Tevye in a West End production of Fiddler on the Roof and a touring production of the musical in the United States.

In the Nineties he appeared several times in Fiddler on the Roof, on Broadway, in a touring production in the United States, and at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne. He guest starred on the show SeaQuest DSV and appeared in the film Left Luggage (1998). He continued to appear in productions of Fiddler on the Roof in the Naughts.

Topol also illustrated several books in both Hebrew and English, and produced drawings of important Israeli figures. He wrote his autobiography, Topol on Topol, and the books To Life! and Topol's Treasury of Jewish Humour.

Topol was an incredible talent. He was a relatively young man when he played Tevye in the Sixties and in the 1971 film version, but he was utterly convincing as the middle-aged milkman. What is more he was versatile. The eccentric Dr. Zarkov in Flash Gordon (1980) couldn't have been more different from Tevye. He was also convincing as the legendary scientist Galileo Galilei in Galileo (1975). In Follow Me (1972), he played detective Julian Cristoforou, who refuses to give up on a case even after the person he is tailing realizes he is doing so. While there can be no doubt that Topol will be best remembered as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, he played a wide variety of roles in his career and gave great performances in all of them.