Chaim Topol

Actor

September 9, 1935 (87 years)

† March 8, 2023

Tel Aviv, Israel

Biography

Chaim Topol (September 9, 1935 - March 8, 2023), often billed simply as Topol, was an Israeli theatrical and film performer, singer and illustrator. He is best known for his portrayal of Tevye, the lead role in the stage musical Fiddler on the Roof and the 1971 film adaptation, performing this role more than 3,500 times from 1967 through 2009. Description above from the Wikipedia article Chaim Topol, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

6.8

Tales of the Unexpected

Professor Max Kelada

A British television anthology of stories, often with sinister and wryly comedic undertones, and a twist at the end. With early episodes written and presented by Roald Dahl, the series featured a plethora of big name guest stars.

7.1

seaQuest DSV

Dr. Rafik Hassan

In the early 21st century, mankind has colonized the oceans. The United Earth Oceans Organization enlists Captain Nathan Bridger and the submarine seaQuest DSV to keep the peace and explore the last frontier on Earth.

7.9

War and Remembrance

Berel Jastrow

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the extended Henry and Jastrow families navigate the personal, social and political impacts of World War II, including the Holocaust, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Pacific theater.

7.0

The Danny Kaye Show

Self

The Danny Kaye Show is an American variety show hosted by Danny Kaye that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1967 on Wednesday nights. Directed by Robert Scheerer, the show premiered in black-and-white, but later switched to color broadcasts. At the time, Kaye was at the height of his popularity, having starred in a string of successful films in the 1940s and '50's, made successful personal appearances at such venues as the London Palladium, and appeared many times on television. His most recent films had been considered disappointing, but the television specials he starred in were triumphant, leading to this series. Prior to his television and film career, Kaye had made a name for himself with his own radio show, and numerous other guest appearances on other shows.

7.3

The Winds of War

Berel Jastrow

Against the backdrop of world events that led to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Victor 'Pug' Henry is a career naval officer who, along with his family, learns to navigate the waters of his dangerous times in the late 1930s.

6.5

For Your Eyes Only

Milos Columbo

A British spy ship has sunk and on board was a hi-tech encryption device. James Bond is sent to find the device that holds British launching instructions before the enemy Soviets get to it first.

6.3

Flash Gordon

Dr. Hans Zarkov

A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.

N/A

Six Fifty-Five Special

Self

Sally James and guest presenters invite established stars and newcomers to contribute to a lively half-hour of music and conversation.

7.8

Fiddler on the Roof

Tevye

In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.

5.0

Queenie

Dimitri Goldner

A half-caste beauty emigrates from India to Great Britain, pursues fame and fortune at the cost of personal happiness, and becomes a Hollywood movie star while suppressing the truth of her heritage.

6.4

Cast a Giant Shadow

Abou Ibn Kader

An American Army officer is recruited by the yet to exist Israel to help them form an army. He is disturbed by this sudden appeal to his Jewish heritage. Each of Israel's Arab neighbors has vowed to invade the poorly prepared country as soon as partition is granted. He is made commander of the Israeli forces just before the war begins.

5.8

Life After Flash

Self

A look at the roller coaster life of Sam J. Jones since his role as Flash Gordon, his struggles and successes, and the aftermath of when he went up against one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood.

6.0

Galileo

Galileo Galilei

Challenged by a new student, tutor and theorist Galileo co-opts emerging telescope technology and discovers irrefutable proof of the heretical notion that the earth is not the center of the universe. But in a rigid society ruled by an uneasy alliance of aristocracy and clergy already undermined by the Plague and the Reformation, science is a threat and enlightenment is a luxury. Faced with either death at the hands of the Inquisition or recantation to a hypocritical but all-powerful Papacy, Galileo must choose between his own life and the restless scientific curiosity that he has spurned family, friends, and wealth to pursue.

7.6

Follow Me!

Julian Cristoforou

A strait-laced British banker hires an eccentric private detective to follow his free-spirited American wife, whom he suspects is cheating on him.

6.3

Left Luggage

Yacov Apfelschnitt

While escaping from Nazis during the WWII, a Jewish man dug suitcases full of things dear to his heart in the ground two. The war deprived him of his family, and afterwards he endlessly turns over the soil of Antwerp to find the suitcases, which makes him look obsessed. He keeps checking old maps and keeps digging, trying to find, in fact, those he lost. His daughter Chaya is a beautiful modern girl looking for a part-time job. She finds a place as a nanny in the strictly observant Chassidic family with many children, although her secular manners clearly fly in the face of many commandments. One of the reasons she is accepted is that mother of the family is absolutely overburdened by the household, so she stays despite the resistance of the father, normally - an indisputable authority in the family. She develops a special bond with the youngest of the boys, four-year old Simcha, so far incapable of speaking.

6.0

Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen

self

The fall of 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, the film Pauline Kael (The New Yorker) called "the most powerful movie musical ever made." Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, FIDDLER'S JOURNEY TO THE BIG SCREEN captures the humor and drama of director Norman Jewison's quest to recreate the lost world of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia and re-envision the beloved stage hit as a wide-screen epic. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim puts us in the director's chair and in Jewison's heart and mind, drawing on behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen stills as well as original interviews with Jewison, Topol (Tevye), composer John Williams, production designer Robert F. Boyle, film critic Kenneth Turan, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and actresses Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, and Neva Small (Tevye’s daughters). The film explores how the experience of making Fiddler deepened Jewison as an artist and revived his soul.

5.2

A Talent for Loving

Mexikanischer Bandit

This Western spoof stars Richard Widmark as an American gambler who wins the deed to a Mexican ranch from a cunning outlaw. At the ranch, the gambler discovers that his new lands have entangled him in an ancient Aztec curse. The ranch's patriarch tries to persuade the newcomer to marry his daughter and explains that the family's women are doomed to be especially fierce and prolific in their romantic encounters.

6.4

I Like Mike

Micha

This romantic drama directed by Peter Frye is about the son of a millionaire Jewish family living in Texas who travels to Israel. On his way to the hotel in Tel Aviv after landing at the airport, the son Mike (Seymour Gitin) gets invited to spend some time with a cab driver's family. Before he has time to experience jet lag, the unwanted attentions of a female in the hotel send Mike packing. He ends up with the cabbie's family, a mixed group presided over by an authoritative matriarch (Batya Lancet). She sees no reason why one of her marriageable daughters should not hook up with this millionaire Mike, but Mike has already lost his heart to a model on a magazine cover -- quite a sticky wicket.

6.0

Before Winter Comes

Janovic

Drama/Comedy set in a refugee camp in occupied Austria after World War II. A shrewd multi-lingual interpreter who mediates between Russian and British military brass enters into a friendly rivalry with British Major Giles Burnside, who is in charge of assigning the displaced persons into either the American or Russian zones.

6.6

Sallah

Sallah Shabati

Sallah Shabati, the patriarch of a big family recently arrived to Israel from Yemen, tries to make money and get better housing, in a country that can barely provide for its own and is in the midst of absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.