Mostel, Zero (1915-1977), was a hearty American comic actor who gained popularity both on the stage and in motion pictures. Mostel had an expressive face and moved with the grace of a dancer, though he was a heavy man. Mostel achieved his greatest success as Tevye the dairyman in the Broadway musical hit Fiddler on the Roof (1964), winning the 1965 Tony Award as best actor in a musical. In 1961, Mostel won a Tony Award as best actor in a play in Eugene Ionesco’s satire Rhinoceros (1961). He won the 1963 Tony Award as best actor in a musical as the slave Pseudolus in the farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962).
Samuel Joel Mostel was born on Feb. 28, 1915, in the Brooklyn section of New York City. He was the son of a rabbi. He graduated from City College of New York and became a painter. Mostel entered show business in 1942 as a comedian in nightclubs. He made his motion-picture debut in 1943 in Du Barry Was a Lady and gained recognition as a villain in Panic in the Streets (1950) and The Enforcer (1951). His first important stage role was in Ulysses in Nighttown (1958), in which he played Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce’s novel Ulysses.
As a motion-picture actor, Mostel is probably best known as a crooked Broadway producer in the comedy The Producers (1968). His other films include Sirocco (1951), The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951), The Great Bank Robbery (1969), The Hot Rock (1972), and The Front (1976). He also starred in the film adaptations of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and Rhinoceros (1973). Mostel died on Sept. 8, 1977.
