Tevye’s beloved ‘real’ wife dies in Israel
Married to actor Chaim for 68 years, Galia Topol died on Sunday days before granddaughter Darya's Fiddler debut
Brigit Grant is the Jewish News Supplements Editor
Galia Topol, the wife of Israeli actor Chaim Topol, died on Saturday, just days before the opening of Fiddler on the Roof at Regents Park, which will mark the debut of the couple’s granddaughter Darya Topol Margalith.
Galia and Chaim’s three children – Omer, Anat and youngest Adi Topol Margalith – announced the passing of their mother on Facebook to friends around the globe, who expressed their sorrow. Galia Finkelstein met the man who would be her husband for 68 years when they were both serving in the IDF and part of Nahal, the army’s entertainment troupe. Married in October 1956, they were just two days into their honeymoon when Chaim was called up for duty in the Sinai campaign.
After the war the couple lived on Kibbutz Mishmar David where he worked in the garage and she worked in the kitchen, but Topol also established the kibbutz satirical theatre group Batzal Yarok (Green Onion). Galia talked about how her husband was always a huge and vociferous presence on the stage. “So loud, that you couldn’t hear the rest of us,” she said.
Briefly an actor herself, Galia starred alongside her husband in the films Boys Will Never Believe It in 1971, The Going Up of David Lev in 1973 and Again, Forever in 1985. Topol was not yet 30 when he auditioned for the role of Tevye in the London production of Fiddler in 1967, but he impressed the producers with his ability to age simply by acting. The production opened in February, but in June, with Israel fighting the Six-Day War, he left to return home, where he entertained the troops.
When he returned to London to complete the run – a total of 430 performances – Galia and the children went with him and it was at the London Palladium that director Norman Jewison saw his performance as the milkman and cast him as Tevye in the 1971 film of Fiddler on the Roof.
For fans of the movie, musical Golde (played by the late Norma Crane) was the woman in Tevye’s life, but off-screen there was only Galia, who was always pictured with her husband at every premiere and party. When Chaim Topol died in March 2023, Galia and her children shared his shiva with the hundreds who came to pay their respects at their home – originally Galia’s family house in Tel Aviv. Unable to travel to London to see her granddaughter’s performance as Schprintze in Jordan Fein’s production at the Open Air Theatre, it was set to be a deeply moving night for Adi. Now she will be in Israel on her daughter Darya’s big night and her husband, composer Dror Margalith will be in the audience. We wish them all long life.
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