Topol, known to be a prestigious leading Israeli actor who charmed generations of theatergoers and movie-watchers with his portrayal of Tevye, the long-suffering and charismatic dairyman in “Fiddler on the Roof,” has died in Tel Aviv at 87.
Topol’s charity, Jordan River Village, announced the death Thursday but did not provide further details. Up until a few years ago, he remained involved in theater and said he still fielded requests to play Tevye.A nominee for an Academy Award and a Tony Award, Topol long has ranked among Israel’s most decorated actors. More recently in 2015, he was celebrated for his contributions to film and culture with the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement, his country’s most prestigious honor.
Chaim Topol was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine, on Sept. 9, 1935. His father and mother, a plasterer and seamstress, respectively, were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He said his father also belonged to Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization. 
In 1956, he married Galia Finkelstein. Survivors include his wife and three children.He devoted much of his later years to charity as board chairman of Jordan River Village, a camp serving Middle Eastern children with life-threatening diseases.
In an interview from his Tel Aviv home in 2015, on the occasion of accepting the Israel prize for lifetime achievement, Topol traced his meteoric rise from modest beginnings to worldwide fame.“I wasn’t brought up in Hollywood. I was brought up in a kibbutz,” he said. “Sometimes I am surprised when I come to China or when I come to Tokyo or when I come to France or when I come wherever, and the clerk at the immigration says, ‘Topol, Topol, are you Topol?’
Topol received respectable reviews and earned a nomination for a best-actor Academy Award, although he lost out to Gene Hackman in “The French Connection.”Literally aging into the role, Topol subsequently played the part more than 3,500 times onstage, most recently in 2009; his 1990-1991 Broadway reprise of “Fiddler” earned him a Tony nomination for best actor in a musical.Topol also appeared in more than 30 other movies, including as the lead in the biopic “Galileo” (1975), Dr. Hans Zarkov in “Flash Gordon” (1980) and James Bond’s foil turned ally Milos Columbo in “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) alongside Roger Moore.
