Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. Mostel received three Tony Awards and a Drama Desk Award as well as nominations for a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award. He is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame, inducted posthumously in 1979.
Mostel is best known for his portrayal of comic characters, including Leopold Bloom in Marjorie Barkentin's Ulysses in Nighttown, Tevye 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 Mel Brooks's The Producers (1967). Mostel was a student of Don Richardson and he used an acting technique based on muscle memory.
Mostel was blacklisted during the 1950s; his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee was well publicized. Mostel starred in the Hollywood Blacklist drama The Front (1976) alongside Woody Allen, for which Mostel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. His final roles included a guest spot on The Muppet Show and a voice in Watership Down (1978). As described in The New York Times, "Mr. Mostel was the actor's actor, the critic's actor and, perhaps most important, the theatergoer's actor."
Samuel Joel Mostel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Israel Mostel and Tzina Druchs (also spelled Cina, known as Celia), both Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Galicia. His father was born in Dziewiętniki, then in Austria-Hungary, later in Poland, and now in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. He emigrated to the United States in 1898 with his first wife, Esther Wirklich Mostel, and young daughter, Celia. They would have three more children – Hyman, Sarah (Sadie), and Benjamin – before her death in 1908. His mother, Tzina, grew up in Vienna, Austria, and immigrated in 1906. Israel had five more children with Tzina: Morris, Milton, Aaron, Samuel (later known as Zero), and William.
As a child, he earned the nickname "Zero" from his classmates to match his poor grades. He kept the moniker when he went into show business, though his mother hated it. Initially living in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, the family moved to Moodus, Connecticut, where they bought a farm. The family's income in those days came from a winery and a slaughterhouse. The farm failed, and the family moved back to New York, where his father obtained work as a wine chemist. Zero was described by his family as outgoing and lively, and with a developed sense of humor. He showed an intelligence and perception which convinced his father he had the makings of a rabbi, but Zero preferred painting and drawing, a passion he retained for life.
According to Roger Butterfield, Zero's mother sent him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to copy paintings while dressed in a velvet suit. Zero 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. One afternoon, while a crowd was watching over his velvet-clad shoulder, he solemnly copied the whole painting upside down, delighting his audience. In addition to English, Zero Mostel spoke Yiddish, Italian, and German. He attended Public School 188, where he was an A student. He also received professional training as a painter through The Educational Alliance. He completed his high school education at Seward Park High School, where his yearbook noted: "A future Rembrandt…or perhaps a comedian?". He attended the City College of New York, a public college that allowed many poor students to pursue higher education. He later claimed that he was on the swimming team and the Reserve Officers Training Corps, though the claim is dubious. As only beginner classes were available in art, Mostel took them repeatedly to be able to paint and receive professional feedback. During the time he worked odd jobs. He graduated in 1935 with a bachelor's degree. He then continued studying towards a master's degree at New York University before leaving after a year to find work. He then joined the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), which paid him a stipend to teach art.
1941–1949: Early comic routines
Part of Mostel's duty with the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) was to give gallery talks at New York's museums. In 1941, the Café Society, a downtown Manhattan nightclub, hired Mostel as a professional comedian to play regularly there, where he adopted the stage name Zero. Mostel's rise professionally was rapid. In 1942, his salary at the Café Society went up from $40 a week to $450; he appeared on radio shows, opened in two Broadway shows (Keep Them Laughing, Top-Notchers), played at the Paramount Theatre, appeared in an MGM movie (Du Barry Was a Lady), and booked into La Martinique at $4,000 a week. He also made cameo appearances at the Yiddish theatre, which influenced his performance style. In 1943 Life magazine described him as "just about the funniest American now living". In March 1943, Mostel was drafted by the US Army. Although he gave varying accounts of his Army service, records show he was honorably discharged in August 1943 because of an unspecified physical disability. He entertained servicemen giving USO performances until 1945.
After Zero's discharge from the Army, he resumed his earlier career. He appeared in a series of plays, musicals, operas, and movies. In 1946 he even made an attempt at serious operatic acting in The Beggar's Opera, but received lukewarm reviews. He sang the title role in a short film of Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi. Critics saw him as a versatile performer.
Zero Mostel made notable appearances on New York City television in the late 1940s. He 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. He also appeared in the May 11, 1949 Toast of the Town broadcast hosted by Ed Sullivan.
1950–1956: Blacklist years and HUAC testimony
Mostel had been a leftist since college and his nightclub routine included political jabs at right-wingers. His 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. According to biographer Arthur Sainer, "MGM blacklisted Zero Mostel way before the days of the blacklist". During his Army service he was under investigation for alleged Communist Party membership. The Military Intelligence Division of the U.S. War Department said it was "reliably reported" that he was a Communist Party member. The Post Intelligence Officer at the Army's Camp Croft, where Mostel served, believed that Mostel was "definitely a Communist." As a result of that, his application to be an entertainment director with the US Army Special Services unit was denied. Mostel had lobbied hard to transfer to Special Services, at one point traveling to Washington to request a transfer.
It was not until 1950 that Mostel again acted in movies, for a role in the Oscar-winning film Panic in the Streets, at the request of its director, Elia Kazan. Kazan describes his attitude and feelings during that period, where
Each director has a favorite in his cast... my favorite this time was Zero Mostel—but not to bully. I thought him an extraordinary artist and a delightful companion, one of the funniest and most original men I'd ever met... I constantly sought his company... He was one of the three people whom I rescued from the "industry's" blacklist... For a long time, Zero had not been able to get work in films, but I got him in my film.
Mostel played supporting roles in five movies for Twentieth Century Fox in 1950, all in films released in 1951. Fox then abruptly cancelled his contract. Mostel learned this after he was lent out to Columbia for a film role but not permitted on the set. The studio may have received word that he was about to be named as a Communist in Congressional testimony.