Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Celebrity News

Pia Zadora recalls ‘Fiddler’ past

Pia Zadora, a shiksa who married Israeli-born billionaire Meshulam Riklis, had to learn Yiddish when she was cast in the original production of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

The show’s star Zero Mostel taught Zadora, then 10 years old and playing his youngest daughter, how to say “mazel tov, oy veh and schmuck,” she recalled Monday night at the Town Hall celebration of the show’s 50th anniversary.

A benefit for the National Yiddish Theater, the event combined original cast members with actors from the 1971 movie and also featured violinist Joshua Bell; Topol, 78, doing an a cappella “If I Were a Rich Man,” and “Fiddler” lyricist Sheldon Harnick, 90, duetting with Andrea Martin on “Do You Love Me.”