He later returned to the stage with the role.
He first appeared in 1967 and did several hundred shows as Tevye.
Director Norman Jewison saw one of the performances and decided Topol was right for the film version.
Chaim Topol attends the opening night of “Fiddler On The Roof"Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images
But as he later revealed, he played Tevye in more than 3,500 productions.
Topol in ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ 1971 (Everett Collection)
