Zero Mostel
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, creating 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). Per The New York Times, "Mr. Mostel was the actor's actor, the critic's actor and, perhaps most important, the theatergoer's actor."
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