Zero Mostel(1915-1977)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Zero Mostel was born Samuel Joel Mostel on February 28, 1915 in
Brooklyn, New York, one of eight children of an Orthodox Jewish family.
Raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the young Zero, known as
Sammy, developed his talent for painting and drawing at art classes
provided by the Educational Alliance, an institution serving Jewish
immigrants and their children. Sammy often would go to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art to copy the paintings.
Sam Mostel matriculated at the City College of New York, then entered a
master's program in art at New York University after graduating from
CCNY in 1935. He dropped out after a year and worked at odd jobs before
being hired by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project
to teach drawing and painting at the 92nd Street "Y", the famous Young
Men and Young Women's Hebrew Association located on Manhattan's 92nd
St., in 1937.
Mostel married Clara Sverd, a CCNY classmate, in 1939, but the marriage
was troubled due to personality conflicts. The couple separated in 1941
and divorced in 1944. While still teaching, Mostel supplemented his
income by providing gallery lectures at various museums under the aegis
of the WPA. His lectures were full of jokes as Mostel personally was a
clown, and subsequently he was hired to perform at private parties.
Mostel auditioned as a comedian at the downtown nightclub Cafe Society
in late 1941, a jazz club. Initially rejected, owner Barney Josephson
hired Mostel after Pearl Harbor, figuring his patrons, now at war,
could use some laughs. It was Ivan Black, the club's press agent, who
gave Sam Mostel the nickname Zero, explaining, "Here's a guy who's
starting from nothing."
Debuting at the Cafe Society on February 16, 1942, Zero was a hit with
audiences and the critics, Simultaneously, Zero began appearing in the
play "Cafe Crown" at the Cort Theatre, which opened on January 23, 1942
and played through May 23rd, closing after 141 performances. Zero made
some impromptu appearances on stage, but he wasn't officially part of
the cast of the play, which was staged by
Elia Kazan and starred
Morris Carnovsky,
Sam Jaffe (a future blacklistee),
Whit Bissell, and
Sam Wanamaker. Zero made his formal
Broadway debut in "Keep 'em Laughing" on April 24, 1942 at the 44th
Street Theatre. The show ran for 77 performances.
Within a year, he was touring the national nightclub circuit and
appearing on radio. He had a brief stint in the Army in 1943, but was
quickly discharged due to an unspecified physical disability. Zero
spent the rest of the war entertaining the troops overseas.
Zero married Kathryn Harkin, a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette,
on July 2, 1944, an act that ruined his relationship with his Orthodox
Jewish parents as his new wife was a gentile. The two remained a
married couple until his death and produced two sons:
Josh Mostel, who was born in 1946, and
Tobias, who was born in 1949.
In the post-war years, Zero began to branch-out as a straight actor. On
October 19, 1948, he made his television debut in the series "Off the
Record," which was broadcast on the DuMont network, following it up
with an appearance on October 26, 1948. He later appeared in the
The Ford Theatre Hour (1948)
episode "The Man Who Came to Dinner," which was broadcast on January
16, 1949 on NBC. He was reunited with his "Cafe Crown" director
Elia Kazan in the Oscar-winner's movie
Panic in the Streets (1950)
(1950). In the movies, Zero often played heavies due to his physique,
roles that downplayed his unique gift for comedy.
Zero had long been a leftist politically, and had made contributions to
progressive causes. His nightclub act lampooned the red-baiters rampant
at the time, and featured the character of a pompous senator called
Polltax T. Pellagra. When he and the wife of his good friend 'Jack
Gilford' were named by Jerome Robbins
before the House Un-American Activities Committee as being communists,
Zero was subpoenaed to testify by HUAC.
Mostel testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on
October 14, 1955. In a playful mood, he told the Committee that he was
employed by "19th Century-Fox." Zero denied he was a Communist, but
refused to name names. He told the Committee that he would gladly
discuss his own conduct but was prohibited by religious convictions
from naming others. Consequently, he was blacklisted during the 1950s.
Shut-out from the movies, he also lost many lucrative nightclub gigs,
and he had to make due by playing gigs for meager salaries and by
selling his paintings.
In the 1950s, Mostel bumped into Elia Kazan on the street in New York
City, and the two reminisced. Kazan said Mostel chided him for putting
Mostel through the paces in "Panic in the Streets," forcing him to run
more than he ever had. The two retired to a bar, and as they began to
drink, s Mostel kept muttering, in reference to Kazan's naming names
before HUAC, "Ya shouldn't a done that. Ya shouldn't a done that."
There was no blacklist in the theater, and his friend
Burgess Meredith, a noted liberal,
offered Zero the lead role in his 1958 Off-Broadway production of
"Ulysses in Nighttown," based on the Nighttown episode of
James Joyce's novel "Ulysses," that
Meredith was directing. Mostel's performance as Leopold Bloom, Joyce's
Jewish Everyman, was a great hit with audiences and critics alike, and
he won an "Obie," the Off-Broadway equivalent of a Tony. Zero also
starred in productions of "Nighttown" in London and Paris.
By the end of 1959, Zero again was appearing on television, cast in the
"Play of the Week" episode "The World of Sholom Aleichem," which was
broadcast on December 14, 1959 in syndication. He also was cast in a
Broadway play, "The Good Soup."
Zero never opened in the play as he was hit by a bus on January 13,
1960. His left leg was severely injured, and required four operations.
Zero was in the hospital for five months but regained the use of the
leg.
He made a triumphant return to Broadway in the fall of 1960, starring
in Ionesco's absurdist tour-de-force "Rhinoceros," for which he won a
Tony award. He was cast in another "Play of the Week" episode, this
time in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," which was broadcast on
April 3, 1961 in syndication.
Zero and his friend Jack Gilford,
who had also been blacklisted due to
Jerome Robbins having named names and
hadn't worked for many years, were both cast in the Broadway musical "A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." However, the show, under
director George Abbott, was troubled. When
Stephen Sondheim pitched Robbins to
producer Harold Prince as the savior of
"Forum," which was floundering in its out-of-town tryouts, Prince
phoned Mostel to ask whether he would be prepared to work with Robbins.
"Are you asking me to eat with him?" asked Mostel.
"I'm just asking you to work with him," Prince replied.
"Of course I'll work with him," Mostel said. "We of the left do not
blacklist."
When Robbins showed up at his first rehearsal, everyone was terrified
of him because of his reputation as a tough taskmaster and
perfectionist. Robbins made the rounds of the cast, shaking hands. When
he got to Mostel, there was silence. Then Mostel boomed, "Hiya, Loose
Lips!"
Everyone burst out laughing, including Robbins, and the show went on.
Robbins was uncredited for staging and choreographing "Forum," which
opened at the Alvin Theatre on May 8, 1962. "Forum" was a great hit,
running for 964 performances at the Alvin and at the Mark Hellinger
Theatre and later at the Majestic, closing on August 29, 1964. "Forum"
won six Tony awards, including Best Musical and Best Director for
George Abbott. Mostel won his second Tony and Gilford was nominated for
the Tony for Best Featured Actor.
Zero followed up this triumph with his legendary turn as Tevye, the
milkman with marriageable daughters in "Fiddler on the Roof," based on
the stories of Sholom Aleichem. With direction and choreography
credited to Jerome Robbins, "Fiddler on the Roof" opened at the
Imperial Theatre on September 22, 1964 and did not close until almost
eight years later, at the Broadway Theatre on July 2, 1972, with a stop
at the Majestic in between during the late '60s. After seven previews,
"Fiddler" racked up a total of 3,242 performances, making it one of the
greatest Broadway smashes ever. After wining nine Tony awards in 1965,
including Best Musical, Best Director, and Best Actor in A Musical
(Zero's third Tony), the show was awarded a 10th Tony, a Special Award
in 1972 when "Fiddler" became the longest-running musical in Broadway
history.
Zero was cast in the 1966 movie version of
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966),
and then concentrated on movies and television for the rest of his
career. Most of his projects, with the exception of
Mel Brooks'
The Producers (1967), did not
fully utilize his talents. It was a major blow when director
Norman Jewison cast the Israeli actor
Topol as Tevye in his movie adaptation of
Fiddler on the Roof (1971),
passing over the legend who had created the role. Topol got an Oscar
nomination, but faded quickly out of American movies. The movie of
"Fiddler," a huge roadshow hit in 1971, also faded out of American
consciousness. One wonders if with Zero in the role, the movie would
now be considered a classic and constantly revived on television.
In 1974, Zero reprised his Leopold Bloom in a Broadway production of
"Ulysses in Nighttown," again directed by Burgess Meredith, which
netted him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Play. He turned
in an affecting performance as a blacklisted comedian in
Martin Ritt's movie about the
blacklist, The Front (1976). He also
had a success with a Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" in
December 1976.
Zero was cast as Shylock in
Arnold Wesker's "The Merchant," a
pro-Jewish reimagining of 'William Shakespeare''s "The Merchant of
Venice." Mostel had great hopes that his Shylock would be the crowning
achievement of his career and put him back on top. His huge talent and
larger-than-life persona seemed to do better on stage.
This was not to come to pass. He fell ill after a tryout performance in
Philadelphia in September and was hospitalized. On September 8, 1977,
Zero Mostel died from an aortic aneurysm at the age of sixty-two. One
of the greatest, most unique, and definitely irreplaceable talents to
grace the American stage and movies had passed away. We are unlikely to
look on his likes again.
Brooklyn, New York, one of eight children of an Orthodox Jewish family.
Raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the young Zero, known as
Sammy, developed his talent for painting and drawing at art classes
provided by the Educational Alliance, an institution serving Jewish
immigrants and their children. Sammy often would go to the Metropolitan
Museum of Art to copy the paintings.
Sam Mostel matriculated at the City College of New York, then entered a
master's program in art at New York University after graduating from
CCNY in 1935. He dropped out after a year and worked at odd jobs before
being hired by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project
to teach drawing and painting at the 92nd Street "Y", the famous Young
Men and Young Women's Hebrew Association located on Manhattan's 92nd
St., in 1937.
Mostel married Clara Sverd, a CCNY classmate, in 1939, but the marriage
was troubled due to personality conflicts. The couple separated in 1941
and divorced in 1944. While still teaching, Mostel supplemented his
income by providing gallery lectures at various museums under the aegis
of the WPA. His lectures were full of jokes as Mostel personally was a
clown, and subsequently he was hired to perform at private parties.
Mostel auditioned as a comedian at the downtown nightclub Cafe Society
in late 1941, a jazz club. Initially rejected, owner Barney Josephson
hired Mostel after Pearl Harbor, figuring his patrons, now at war,
could use some laughs. It was Ivan Black, the club's press agent, who
gave Sam Mostel the nickname Zero, explaining, "Here's a guy who's
starting from nothing."
Debuting at the Cafe Society on February 16, 1942, Zero was a hit with
audiences and the critics, Simultaneously, Zero began appearing in the
play "Cafe Crown" at the Cort Theatre, which opened on January 23, 1942
and played through May 23rd, closing after 141 performances. Zero made
some impromptu appearances on stage, but he wasn't officially part of
the cast of the play, which was staged by
Elia Kazan and starred
Morris Carnovsky,
Sam Jaffe (a future blacklistee),
Whit Bissell, and
Sam Wanamaker. Zero made his formal
Broadway debut in "Keep 'em Laughing" on April 24, 1942 at the 44th
Street Theatre. The show ran for 77 performances.
Within a year, he was touring the national nightclub circuit and
appearing on radio. He had a brief stint in the Army in 1943, but was
quickly discharged due to an unspecified physical disability. Zero
spent the rest of the war entertaining the troops overseas.
Zero married Kathryn Harkin, a former Radio City Music Hall Rockette,
on July 2, 1944, an act that ruined his relationship with his Orthodox
Jewish parents as his new wife was a gentile. The two remained a
married couple until his death and produced two sons:
Josh Mostel, who was born in 1946, and
Tobias, who was born in 1949.
In the post-war years, Zero began to branch-out as a straight actor. On
October 19, 1948, he made his television debut in the series "Off the
Record," which was broadcast on the DuMont network, following it up
with an appearance on October 26, 1948. He later appeared in the
The Ford Theatre Hour (1948)
episode "The Man Who Came to Dinner," which was broadcast on January
16, 1949 on NBC. He was reunited with his "Cafe Crown" director
Elia Kazan in the Oscar-winner's movie
Panic in the Streets (1950)
(1950). In the movies, Zero often played heavies due to his physique,
roles that downplayed his unique gift for comedy.
Zero had long been a leftist politically, and had made contributions to
progressive causes. His nightclub act lampooned the red-baiters rampant
at the time, and featured the character of a pompous senator called
Polltax T. Pellagra. When he and the wife of his good friend 'Jack
Gilford' were named by Jerome Robbins
before the House Un-American Activities Committee as being communists,
Zero was subpoenaed to testify by HUAC.
Mostel testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on
October 14, 1955. In a playful mood, he told the Committee that he was
employed by "19th Century-Fox." Zero denied he was a Communist, but
refused to name names. He told the Committee that he would gladly
discuss his own conduct but was prohibited by religious convictions
from naming others. Consequently, he was blacklisted during the 1950s.
Shut-out from the movies, he also lost many lucrative nightclub gigs,
and he had to make due by playing gigs for meager salaries and by
selling his paintings.
In the 1950s, Mostel bumped into Elia Kazan on the street in New York
City, and the two reminisced. Kazan said Mostel chided him for putting
Mostel through the paces in "Panic in the Streets," forcing him to run
more than he ever had. The two retired to a bar, and as they began to
drink, s Mostel kept muttering, in reference to Kazan's naming names
before HUAC, "Ya shouldn't a done that. Ya shouldn't a done that."
There was no blacklist in the theater, and his friend
Burgess Meredith, a noted liberal,
offered Zero the lead role in his 1958 Off-Broadway production of
"Ulysses in Nighttown," based on the Nighttown episode of
James Joyce's novel "Ulysses," that
Meredith was directing. Mostel's performance as Leopold Bloom, Joyce's
Jewish Everyman, was a great hit with audiences and critics alike, and
he won an "Obie," the Off-Broadway equivalent of a Tony. Zero also
starred in productions of "Nighttown" in London and Paris.
By the end of 1959, Zero again was appearing on television, cast in the
"Play of the Week" episode "The World of Sholom Aleichem," which was
broadcast on December 14, 1959 in syndication. He also was cast in a
Broadway play, "The Good Soup."
Zero never opened in the play as he was hit by a bus on January 13,
1960. His left leg was severely injured, and required four operations.
Zero was in the hospital for five months but regained the use of the
leg.
He made a triumphant return to Broadway in the fall of 1960, starring
in Ionesco's absurdist tour-de-force "Rhinoceros," for which he won a
Tony award. He was cast in another "Play of the Week" episode, this
time in Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot," which was broadcast on
April 3, 1961 in syndication.
Zero and his friend Jack Gilford,
who had also been blacklisted due to
Jerome Robbins having named names and
hadn't worked for many years, were both cast in the Broadway musical "A
Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." However, the show, under
director George Abbott, was troubled. When
Stephen Sondheim pitched Robbins to
producer Harold Prince as the savior of
"Forum," which was floundering in its out-of-town tryouts, Prince
phoned Mostel to ask whether he would be prepared to work with Robbins.
"Are you asking me to eat with him?" asked Mostel.
"I'm just asking you to work with him," Prince replied.
"Of course I'll work with him," Mostel said. "We of the left do not
blacklist."
When Robbins showed up at his first rehearsal, everyone was terrified
of him because of his reputation as a tough taskmaster and
perfectionist. Robbins made the rounds of the cast, shaking hands. When
he got to Mostel, there was silence. Then Mostel boomed, "Hiya, Loose
Lips!"
Everyone burst out laughing, including Robbins, and the show went on.
Robbins was uncredited for staging and choreographing "Forum," which
opened at the Alvin Theatre on May 8, 1962. "Forum" was a great hit,
running for 964 performances at the Alvin and at the Mark Hellinger
Theatre and later at the Majestic, closing on August 29, 1964. "Forum"
won six Tony awards, including Best Musical and Best Director for
George Abbott. Mostel won his second Tony and Gilford was nominated for
the Tony for Best Featured Actor.
Zero followed up this triumph with his legendary turn as Tevye, the
milkman with marriageable daughters in "Fiddler on the Roof," based on
the stories of Sholom Aleichem. With direction and choreography
credited to Jerome Robbins, "Fiddler on the Roof" opened at the
Imperial Theatre on September 22, 1964 and did not close until almost
eight years later, at the Broadway Theatre on July 2, 1972, with a stop
at the Majestic in between during the late '60s. After seven previews,
"Fiddler" racked up a total of 3,242 performances, making it one of the
greatest Broadway smashes ever. After wining nine Tony awards in 1965,
including Best Musical, Best Director, and Best Actor in A Musical
(Zero's third Tony), the show was awarded a 10th Tony, a Special Award
in 1972 when "Fiddler" became the longest-running musical in Broadway
history.
Zero was cast in the 1966 movie version of
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966),
and then concentrated on movies and television for the rest of his
career. Most of his projects, with the exception of
Mel Brooks'
The Producers (1967), did not
fully utilize his talents. It was a major blow when director
Norman Jewison cast the Israeli actor
Topol as Tevye in his movie adaptation of
Fiddler on the Roof (1971),
passing over the legend who had created the role. Topol got an Oscar
nomination, but faded quickly out of American movies. The movie of
"Fiddler," a huge roadshow hit in 1971, also faded out of American
consciousness. One wonders if with Zero in the role, the movie would
now be considered a classic and constantly revived on television.
In 1974, Zero reprised his Leopold Bloom in a Broadway production of
"Ulysses in Nighttown," again directed by Burgess Meredith, which
netted him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Play. He turned
in an affecting performance as a blacklisted comedian in
Martin Ritt's movie about the
blacklist, The Front (1976). He also
had a success with a Broadway revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" in
December 1976.
Zero was cast as Shylock in
Arnold Wesker's "The Merchant," a
pro-Jewish reimagining of 'William Shakespeare''s "The Merchant of
Venice." Mostel had great hopes that his Shylock would be the crowning
achievement of his career and put him back on top. His huge talent and
larger-than-life persona seemed to do better on stage.
This was not to come to pass. He fell ill after a tryout performance in
Philadelphia in September and was hospitalized. On September 8, 1977,
Zero Mostel died from an aortic aneurysm at the age of sixty-two. One
of the greatest, most unique, and definitely irreplaceable talents to
grace the American stage and movies had passed away. We are unlikely to
look on his likes again.