Chaim Topol

Chaim Topol (; 9 September 1935 – 8 March 2023), mononymously known as Topol,

Topol began acting during his Israeli army service as a member of the Nahal entertainment troupe. He later toured Israel with kibbutz theatre and satirical theatre companies. He was a co-founder of the Haifa Theatre. His breakthrough film role came in 1964 as the title character in Sallah Shabati, by Israeli writer Ephraim Kishon, for which he won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer—Male. Topol went on to appear in more than 30 films in Israel and the United States, including Galileo (1975), Flash Gordon (1980), and the James Bond franchise film For Your Eyes Only (1981). He was described as Israel's only internationally recognized entertainer from the 1960s through the 1980s. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his 1971 film portrayal of Tevye, and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for a 1991 Broadway revival of Fiddler on the Roof.

Topol was a founder of Variety Israel, an organization serving children with disabilities, and Jordan River Village, a year-round camp for Arab and Jewish children with life-threatening illnesses, for which he served as chairman of the board. In 2015 he was awarded the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement.

Biography

Chaim Topol was born on September 9, 1935, in Tel Aviv, in what was then Mandatory Palestine. His father Jacob Topol was born in Russia and in the early 1930s immigrated to Palestine, where he worked as a plasterer; he also served in the Haganah paramilitary organization. His mother Imrela "Rel" (née Goldman) Topol was a seamstress.

Topol's parents had been members of the Betar Zionist youth movement in Warsaw. His father had Hasidic roots, with a mother coming from a family of Gerrer Hasidim and a father from Aleksander Hasidim.

Topol and his two younger sisters grew up in the South Tel Aviv working-class neighborhood of Florentin. As a young child, although he wanted to become a commercial artist, his elementary school teacher, the writer Yemima Avidar-Tchernovitz, saw a theatrical side to him, and encouraged him to act in school plays and read stories to the class. Topol's hobbies included sketching and sculpting.

In June 2022, Topol's son, Omer, revealed that his father was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

On March 8, 2023, Topol's family notified the press that he was near death and "living his final hours", and asked the public to respect the family's privacy. He died overnight at the age of 87. The day before his burial at Kvutzat Shiller on March 10, a memorial was held at the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv.

Singing and acting career Between 1960 and 1964, Topol performed with the Batzal Yarok ("Green Onion") satirical theatre company, which also toured Israel. Adapted for the screen by Ephraim Kishon from his original play, the social satire depicts the hardships of a Sephardic immigrant family in the rough conditions of ma'abarot, immigrant absorption camps in Israel in the 1950s, satirizing "just about every pillar of Israeli society: the Ashkenazi establishment, the pedantic bureaucracy, corrupt political parties, rigid kibbutz ideologues and ... the Jewish National Fund's tree-planting program". Topol, who was 29 during the filming, was familiar playing the role of the family patriarch, having performed skits from the play with his Nahal entertainment troupe during his army years. and the 1972 David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor, sharing the latter with Elizabeth Taylor. He was also nominated for the 1971 Academy Award for Best Actor, losing to Gene Hackman in The French Connection. As he was by then the approximate age of the character, he commented, "I didn't have to spend the energy playing the age". followed by an April 2006 production at the Lyric Theatre in Brisbane, and a June 2006 production at Her Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne. In May 2007, he starred in a production at the Auckland Civic Theatre.

In 2009, Topol began a farewell tour of Fiddler on the Roof as Tevye, opening in Wilmington, Delaware. He was forced to withdraw from the tour in Boston owing to a shoulder injury, and was replaced by Theodore Bikel and Harvey Fierstein, both of whom had portrayed Tevye on Broadway.

Other stage and film roles

In 1976, Topol played the lead role of the baker, Amiable, in the new musical The Baker's Wife, but was fired after eight months by producer David Merrick. In her autobiography, Patti LuPone, his co-star in the production, claimed that Topol had behaved unprofessionally on stage and had a strained relationship with her off-stage. The show's composer, Stephen Schwartz, claimed that Topol's behavior greatly disturbed the cast and directors and resulted in the production not reaching Broadway as planned. In 1988, Topol starred in the title role in Ziegfeld at the London Palladium. He returned to the London stage in 2008 in the role of Honoré, played by Maurice Chevalier in the 1958 film Gigi. He was said to be Israel's "only internationally recognized entertainer" from the 1960s through to the 1980s. A Hebrew-language documentary of his life, Chaim Topol – Life as a Film, aired on Israel's Channel 1 in 2011, featuring interviews with his longtime actor friends in Israel and abroad.

Mossad missions After Topol's death, the family revealed that he had been involved in Mossad missions in the 1960s and 1970s. They said that he went on unexplained trips abroad while equipped with a miniature state-of-the-art camera and tape recorder, and that he was in regular contact with Mossad officer Peter Malkin, who came on visits to the family home through the backyard in disguise. On several occasions, Topol carried out wiretapping and other operations with Malkin, using his international acclaim to divert attention from Malkin.

Literary and art career

His autobiography, Topol by Topol, was published in London by Weindenfel and Nicholson (1981).

Philanthropy In 1967, Topol founded Variety Israel, an organization serving children with disabilities. It was inspired by Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp. The village is operated almost entirely by volunteers. Topol described it as the project he was "most connected to."

Awards and recognition

Topol was a recipient of Israel's Kinor David award in arts and entertainment in 1964. He received a Best Actor award from the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his performance in the 1972 film Follow Me!

In 2014, the University of Haifa conferred upon Topol an honorary degree in recognition of his 50 years of activity in Israel's cultural and public life.

In 2015, Chaim Topol was honoured by the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman and the Ukrainian Jewish Community. Topol's portrayal of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof led to the inspiration for the Anatevka Refugee Village which was named in commemoration of the fictional village.

Legacy Shortly after Topol's death, President Isaac Herzog issued a statement honouring "one of the most prominent Israeli stage artists, a gifted actor who conquered many stages in Israel and overseas, filled the cinema screens with his presence and, above all, deeply entered our hearts". Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated "his wide smile, warm voice, and unique sense of humour made him a folk hero who won the hearts of the people" and former prime minister Yair Lapid remarked "He and his smile will continue to accompany Israeli culture, his rich legacy will forever remain a part of Israel".

Filmography