Izhar Nevo
Izhar Nevo (Hebrew: יזהר נבו, born 1972) is the first and only contestant who has ever won the Israeli version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Mi rotseh lehyot milyoner?. He won the grand prize of ₪1,000,000 (in 2000 it was $245,500, now $257,000) on August 7, 2000.
The question for the million that he answered was: "Which of the following books of The Young Sportsmen series was the first?" (מהו הספר הראשון בסדרת "הספורטאים הצעירים"?), followed by apparently four names of books (of which only three were actually names of books from the series). Nevo used only at that point the 50:50 lifeline and tossed a coin to choose the right answer from the remaining two. Nevertheless, in the show video he can be heard telling his spouse (which participated as the "friend-in-the-audience" and joined him on stage) that he actually knew the right answer.
The phone a friend lifeline was used in the ₪500,000 question that was about the most ancient of four British monarchs (מבין ארבעת המלכים האנגליים, מי מלך לפני כל האחרים?). The friend, a historian by profession, answered correctly.