March 9 (UPI) — Chaim Topol died Wednesday at the age of 87. Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced Topol’s death on Twitter and CNN confirmed with Topol’s representatives.
Going only by the name Topol, the actor’s most famous credit was the lead role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof. Topol performed Fiddler on stage over 3,500 times according to People, and committed the role to film in 1971, for which he received an Oscar nomination. One stage production is at Salt Lake City’s Pioneer Theater in the late 1970s.
The musical stars Topol as a Russian Jew who struggles with his independent daughters’ resistance to traditional arranged marriages. His show stopping song is “If I Were a Rich Man” but “Tradition” is another pivotal song in which Tevye leads the chorus. Tevye also performs the duet “Do You Love Me?” with his wife Golde.
Topol continued to act on screen through the mid-’90s. He helped Roger Moore‘s James Bond in For Your Eyes Only and took Flash Gordon to Planet Mongo in the 1981 film. Topol starred in the miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and appeared on an episode of Seaquest, DSV.
According to People, Topol had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s years ago. CNN reported the cause of death as “a long illness.”
Herzog also mentioned working with Topol for Topol’s charity, Kfar Nahar Jordan, for sick and disabled children. He is survived by a wife, Galia, a son, Omer and two daughters, Ady and Anat. Galia, Ady and Anat Topol also acted.
