
Acting
Sep 8, 1935
Tel Aviv, Israel
Chaim Topol
Acting
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.
Feature Films (28)

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.
For Your Eyes Only

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

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.
Fiddler on the Roof

Sherman, who is on trial for murder, is found not guilty thanks to reasonable doubt, however; having stood trial leaves the young felon a changed man. He falls head over heels with his defence attorney’s bright daughter and is even willing to turn his back on a life of crime for her, including walking away from his long-time partner, Jaffan prostitute, Margot. However, the road back to the straight and narrow is not an easy one and indeed, many around hm are wary of this so-called, newly-reformed Sherman.
El Dorado

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.
Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen

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.
Left Luggage

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

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.
Galileo

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.
Before Winter Comes

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.
I Like Mike

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.
Cast a Giant Shadow
Television & Series (8)

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.
seaQuest DSV

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.
Tales of the Unexpected

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

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.
The Winds of War

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.




