63 Facts About Zero Mostel

Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel was an American actor, comedian, and singer.

Zero Mostel is best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in the original film version of Mel Brooks' The Producers.

Zero Mostel was blacklisted during the 1950s; his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee was well publicized.

Zero Mostel later starred in the Hollywood Blacklist drama film The Front alongside Woody Allen, for which Zero Mostel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Zero Mostel was an Obie Award and three-time Tony Award winner.

Zero Mostel is a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, inducted posthumously in 1979.

Zero Mostel was born in Brooklyn, to Israel Zero Mostel, who was of Eastern European Jewish origin, and Cina "Celia" Druchs, a Polish Jew who was raised in Vienna.

Zero Mostel was described by his family as outgoing and lively, and with a developed sense of humor.

Zero Mostel showed an intelligence and perception that convinced his father he had the makings of a rabbi, but Mostel preferred painting and drawing, a passion he was to retain for life.

Zero Mostel had a favorite painting, John White Alexander's Study in Black and Green, which he copied every day, to the delight of the gallery crowds.

Zero Mostel attended Public School 188, where he was an A student.

Zero Mostel received professional training as a painter through The Educational Alliance.

Zero Mostel attended the City College of New York, a public college that allowed many poor students to pursue higher education.

Zero Mostel later claimed that he was on the swimming team and the Reserve Officers Training Corps, though the claim is dubious.

Zero Mostel then continued studying towards a master's degree at New York University before leaving after a year to find work.

Zero Mostel then joined the Public Works of Art Project, which paid him a stipend to teach art.

The marriage did not last since Clara could not accept the many hours Zero Mostel spent in his studio with his fellow artists, and he did not seem to be able to provide for her at the level to which she had been accustomed.

Zero Mostel accepted, and in the next few months he became the Cafe Society's main attraction.

Zero Mostel made cameo appearances at the Yiddish theatre, which influenced his performance style.

Zero Mostel subsequently entertained servicemen through the USO until 1945.

Zero Mostel married Kathryn Cecilia Harkin, an actress and dancer, on July 2,1944, after two years of courtship.

The marriage had problems at times, again mostly due to Zero Mostel's spending most of his time in his art studio.

Zero Mostel appeared in a series of plays, musicals, operas, and movies.

Zero Mostel sang the title role in a short film of Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi.

Zero Mostel made notable appearances on New York City television in the late 1940s.

Zero Mostel had his own show in 1948 called Off The Record on WABD with comedian partner Joey Faye.

Simultaneously, Mostel had a live TV show on WPIX, Channel Zero.

Zero Mostel appeared in the May 11,1949 Toast of the Town broadcast hosted by Ed Sullivan.

Zero Mostel had been a leftist since college and his nightclub routine included political jabs at right-wingers.

Zero Mostel's MGM contract was terminated, and his role in Du Barry Was a Lady was truncated, because studio executives were upset that he participated in protests against another MGM film, Tennessee Johnson, which protesters believed had downplayed the racism of former US President Andrew Johnson.

Zero Mostel had lobbied hard to transfer to Special Services, at one point traveling to Washington to request a transfer.

Zero Mostel played supporting roles in five movies for Twentieth Century Fox in 1950, all in films released in 1951.

Zero Mostel learned this after he was loaned out to Columbia for a film role but not permitted on the set.

Zero Mostel was subpoenaed to appear before HUAC on August 14,1955.

Zero Mostel declined to name names and jousted with the members of Congress, invoked the Fifth Amendment, while standing up for his right to the privacy of his personal political beliefs.

Zero Mostel's testimony won him admiration in the blacklisted community, and in addition to not naming names he confronted the committee on ideological matters, something that was rarely done.

In 1957, Toby Cole, a New York theatrical agent who strongly opposed the blacklist, contacted Zero Mostel and asked to represent him.

Zero Mostel agreed, and the partnership led to the revival of Zero Mostel's career and made him a household name.

Zero Mostel accepted the role of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in Nighttown, a play based on the novel Ulysses, which he had greatly admired in his youth.

On January 13,1960, while exiting a taxi on his way back from rehearsals for the play The Good Soup, Zero Mostel was hit by a number 18 86th Street crosstown bus, and his leg was crushed.

Zero Mostel refused, accepting the risk of gangrene, and remained hospitalized for four months.

Zero Mostel sought compensation for the injury by retaining the famous Harry Lipsig as his attorney.

From this time forward, whenever he attended the Metropolitan Opera, Zero Mostel carried a cane to go along with the cape that he favored.

Later that year Zero Mostel took on the role of Estragon in a TV adaptation of Waiting for Godot.

In 1962 Zero Mostel began work on the role of Pseudolus in the Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which was to be one of his best-remembered roles.

Zero Mostel did not originally want to do the role either, which he thought below his capabilities, but was convinced by his wife and agent.

On September 22,1964, Zero Mostel opened as Tevye in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Zero Mostel created the cantorial sounds made famous in the song "If I Were a Rich Man".

Zero Mostel received a Tony Award for it and was invited to a reception in the White House, officially ending his status as a political pariah.

Zero Mostel refused to accept the role of Max at first, but director Mel Brooks persuaded him to show the script to his wife, who then talked Zero Mostel into doing it.

Zero Mostel lived in a large rented apartment in The Belnord on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and built a summer house on Monhegan Island in Maine.

Zero Mostel made memorable appearances in children's shows such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and gave voice to the boisterous seagull Kehaar in the animated film Watership Down.

Zero Mostel appeared as a guest star during Season 2 of The Muppet Show, taped during mid-1977 and broadcast after his death.

Zero Mostel was diagnosed with a respiratory disorder, and it was believed he was in no danger and would be released soon.

However, on September 8,1977, Zero Mostel complained of dizziness and lost consciousness.

Zero Mostel was cremated following his death; the location of his ashes is not publicly known.

Zero Mostel often collided with directors and other performers in the course of his professional career.

Zero Mostel was described as irreverent, believing himself to be a comic genius and showed little patience for incompetence.

Zero Mostel often improvised, which was received well by audiences but which often left other performers confused and speechless during live performances.

Zero Mostel often dominated the stage whether or not his role called for it.

However, just after being introduced, Zero Mostel got up, walked over to Wilder, hugged him, and planted a big kiss on his lips.

Wilder claims to be grateful to Zero Mostel for teaching him such a valuable lesson, and for picking Wilder up every day so that they could ride to work together.

Zero Mostel tells the story of a dinner celebrating the release of The Producers.