# My mind is blown -- Chaim Topol was only 36 when he played Tevye in the '71 Fiddler **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 20, 2016, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638 "2016-03-20T12:36:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/1 "2016-03-20T12:36:32Z")
Wow. He looked almost 60. And he’s still around, and only 80. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/2 "2016-03-20T12:47:33Z")
Marlon Brando was 48 when he played Vito Corleone in _The Godfather_. Abe Vigoda (Sal Tessio) was 51. Richard Castellano (Pete Clemenza) was 39. To put it in perspective, they were all younger than Johnny Depp. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/3 "2016-03-20T12:57:30Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Wow. He looked almost 60. And he’s still around, and only 80. He also couldn’t speak English at the time, and had to learn his lines phonetically. ---
**Author:** ![bobkitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c67d28/32.png) [@bobkitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobkitty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/4 "2016-03-20T15:08:49Z")
My favorite trivia is that they snipped hairs out of the director’s beard and glued them into Topol’s eyebrows to make him look older. 🙂 Want your mind really blown? Rosalind Harris, who played the oldest daughter in the movie, played Golde to Topol’s Tevye on Broadway in 1991. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/5 "2016-03-20T15:34:33Z")
As long as we’re trading FotR film trivia: director Norman Jewison: not Jewish! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/6 "2016-03-20T15:43:43Z")
He was only 30 when he first played the role on stage. He was still touring as Tevye until he was 75’ when an injury forced his retirement. He was replaced in some shows after his withdrawal by Theidore Bikel, who played the role of Tevye more than any other actor and by then was in his late 80s; Bikel got rave reviews. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/7 "2016-03-20T16:00:02Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > He was replaced in some shows after his withdrawal by Theidore Bikel Better known to the general public (or at least those who have any knowledge of theater history) as the original Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/8 "2016-03-20T16:20:10Z")
In the original _Manchurian Candidate_, Angela Lansbury plays the mother of Laurence Harvey even though she is only 3 years old than he is IRL. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/9 "2016-03-20T16:33:00Z")
It’s no shame being 36, but it’s no great honor either. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/10 "2016-03-20T17:08:58Z")
Wilfred Brambell was 52 when he played Paul’s Grandfather in _A Hard Day’s Night_. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/11 "2016-03-20T20:08:49Z")
Louis Marshall “Grandpa” Jones created the banjo playing Grandpa character before he was thirty. He even changed his style of banjo playing to fit his new backwards character. Grandpa Jones was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1978. He played that character throughout the rest of his life. > [@](#): > > Performing as Grandpa Jones, he played the guitar or banjo, yodeled, and sang mostly old-time ballads. By 1937, Jones had made his way to West Virginia, where Cousin Emmy taught Jones the art of the clawhammer style of banjo playing, which gave a rough backwoods flavor to his performances. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mind-is-blown-chaim-topol-was-only-36-when-he-played-tevye-in-the-71-fiddler/749638/12 "2016-03-20T20:55:38Z")
I suspect that the moral of the story is that it’s good to grow up away from the effects of second (or first) hand smoke.