Zero Mostel

Zero Mostel
In the Broadway play Fiddler on the Roof (1964)
Born	Samuel Joel Mostel (1915-02-28)February 28, 1915 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	September 8, 1977(1977-09-08) (aged 62) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Cause of death	Aortic aneurysm
Occupation	Actor, Comedian
Years active	1941–1977
Spouse(s)	Clara Sverd (1939–1944; divorced) Kathryn Celia Harkin (1944–1977; his death; 2 children)

Samuel Joel "Zero" Mostel (February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977) was an American actor and comedian of stage and screen, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye on stage in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus on stage and on screen in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and in the original film version of The Producers. Mostel was a student of Don Richardson, using an acting technique based on muscle memory. He was blacklisted during the 1950s, and his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee was well-publicized. He was an Obie Award and three-time Tony Award winner.

Mostel was born to Israel Mostel, an Ashkenazi Jew of Eastern European origin, and Cina "Celia" Druchs, a Polish Jew who was raised in Vienna. The two emigrated to the United States (separately: Israel in 1898 and Cina in 1908), where they met and married. Israel already had four children from his first wife; he had four more children with Cina. Samuel, later known as Zero, was Israel's seventh child.

According to his brother, Bill Mostel, their mother coined the nickname "Zero", noting that if he continued to do poorly at school, he would amount to a Zero.

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 did not do well. When, according to Zero, an unyielding bank president with fierce mustache and long whip foreclosed the mortgage on the farm, the ten Mostels trekked back to New York and settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where the boy attended public school, his character was shaped, and his father was employed as a wine chemist. While not at poverty level, the family struggled financially. As a child, Mostel was described by his family as outgoing and lively, and with a developed sense of humor. He showed an intelligence and perception that convinced his father he had the makings of a rabbi; however, Mostel preferred painting and drawing, a passion he was to retain for life. According to Roger Butterfield, his mother made a practice of dressing the boy in a velvet suit and sending him to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to copy masterpieces. 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.