This volatile, stage-trained comic actor made his film debut playing dual roles in "Du Barry Was a Lady" (1943). Mostel's solid, bulky build and heavy-lidded eyes made him a convincing heavy, but his promising film career (e.g., "Panic in the Streets" 1950) was cut short when he was blacklisted following his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951. His fortunes revived in the early 1960s with his maniacally comic Broadway performance in "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (1962) and, as Tevye, in "Fiddler on the Roof" (1964). Mostel turned in a landmark screen performance as bamboozling Broadway producer Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' "The Producers" (1967), and continued making regular film appearances into the late 1970s. One of his most notable later roles was in the Martin Ritt drama, "The Front" (1976), as a man facing the blacklist.
- Also Credited As:
Samuel Joel Mostel
- Born:
February 28, 1915 in Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Died:
September 8, 1977.
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Job Titles:
Actor, Comedian, Art teacher, Painter, Factory worker, Longshoreman, Miner
Family
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Son: Josh Mostel. born on December 21, 1946
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Son: Tobias Mostel. born on September 29, 1948
Education
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City College of New York, New York, New York, art and English, 1935
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New York University, New York, New York, art
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The Education Alliance, New York, New York
Milestones
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1937 Hired by the Federal Arts Program to teach drawing and painting
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1942 Broadway debut in the revue Keep Em Laughing
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1942 Debut as a stand-up comic at Cafe Society in NYC; given nickname Zero by club s press agent because he was a guy starting from nothing
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1943 Briefly served in the US Army
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1943 Feature film debut in DuBarry Was a Lady
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1946 Appeared in the stage musical Beggar s Holiday
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1948 Performed regularly on Off the Record (DuMont)
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1949 Acted alongside wife Kate in two Moliere plays, The Imaginary Invalid and The Doctor in Spite of Himself , at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts
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1950 Had featured role in Panic in the Streets , helmed by Elia Kazan
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1951 Called to testify before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities; was blacklisted
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1952 Last film for nearly a decade, The Model and the Marriage Broker
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1952 Reteamed with Kazan for the stage drama Flight into Egypt
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1958 Made stage comeback in Ulysses in Nighttown , directed by Burgess Meredith
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1959 Appeared in The World of Sholom Aleichem (syndicated)
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1960 Acted in Zero , adapted from a Samuel Beckett play; screened at Venice Film Festival but never released theatrically in the USA
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1960 Severely injured left leg when he was struck by a bus (January)
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1961 Returned to Broadway after long recovery to star in Ionesco s Rhinoceros ; received Tony Award
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1962 Enjoyed hit as the star of the vaudeville-like musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ; received second Tony Award
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1963 Headlined one-person special Zero Mostel
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1964 Delivered a well-received stage turn as Tevye the milkman in the musical Fiddler on the Roof , adapted from the stories of Sholom Aleichem; production directed by Jerome Robbins; garnered third career Tony Award
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1966 Recreated his stage role as Pseudolus in the film adaptation of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
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1967 Starred in the variety program Zero Hour (ABC)
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1968 Offered what is perhaps his best recalled film performance as outsized impresario Max Bialystock in The Producers
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1970 Co-starred in The Angel Levine
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1972 Acted in the caper comedy The Hot Rock
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1974 Final Broadway appearance recreating role of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in Nighttown ; earned Tony nomination
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1974 Recreated another stage role in the film adaptation of Rhinoceros
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1976 Appeared alongside Woody Allen in The Front , about the Hollywood blacklist, scripted by Walter Bernstein and directed by Martin Ritt
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1977 Final stage performance as Shylock in The Merchant , Arnold Wesker s reworking of Shakespeare s The Merchant of Venice
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1977 Last TV appearance, a guest spot on the syndicated series The Muppet Show
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1978 Heard posthumously as the voice of Kehaar the seagull in the animated film Watership Down
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1979 Seen in footage of the documentary Best Boy
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In the early 1940s, began to be hired as an entertainer at private parties
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Raised on NYC s Lower East Side