Zero Mostel

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Zero Mostel (1960)

Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (born February 28, 1915 in Brooklyn , New York City , New York , † September 8, 1977 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) was an American actor and comedian .

Life

Samuel Joel Mostel was born as the son of the Jewish immigrants Israel Mostel and Cina "Celia" Druchs. He spoke German, English, Polish and Yiddish. He gave himself the stage name "Zero" ("Null") at the beginning of his career as a comedian, allegedly because his parents had prophesied that he would achieve "nothing".

Mostel began his career as a comedian in nightclubs and on cabaret stages. He made his acting debut in 1943 in the musical Du Barry Was a Lady . During the McCarthy era , he was summoned to appear before the Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 . Mostel refused to incriminate himself as well as denounce others before the committee, invoking the 5th Amendment to the Bill of Rights . He was then blacklisted and banned from his profession .

In 1958 he won an Obie Award for his role as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in Nighttown , a stage adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses . In 1963 Mostel received a Tony Award for his portrayal of the slave Pseudolus in the musical Toll drove the ancient Romans (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) . He played the role again in 1966 in the film adaptation of the same name by director Richard Lester .

In the world premiere of the musical Anatevka (Fiddler on the Roof) based on the novel Tevje, the milkman by Scholem Alejchem , which premiered on September 22, 1964, Mostel played the main role of Tevje. In 1965 he won another Tony Award for it.

In 1968 he played Broadway producer Max Bialystok in Mel Brooks ' film directing debut Spring for Hitler , for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe in the 1969 category “Best Actor, Comedy or Musical” . In 1976 he appeared next to Woody Allen in the film The Straw Man and played the comedian Hecky Brown, who, like Mostel himself, was dismissed during the McCarthy era and put on the "blacklist". For this role, Mostel was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Mostel died in 1977 of an aortic aneurysm . He was rehearsing for Arnold Wesker's new play The Merchant , a modern version of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice , in which he was supposed to play Shylock .

His son Josh Mostel is also an actor.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jared Brown: Zero Mostel: a Biography, New York, 1989, p. 55
personal data
SURNAME Mostel, Zero
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mostel, Samuel Joel (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and comedian
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York, United States
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1977
Place of death Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, United States