Zero Mostel (February 25, 1915 - September 8, 1977) was a Tony Award-winning stage actor. He was born Samuel Joel Mostel.
In the 1950s, he was blacklisted on account of his leftist political beliefs.
In 1963 his career recovered with his Tony Award winning performance in the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In 1964, he joined the original cast of the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, for which he won a Tony in 1965.
Mostel won an Obie Award for his 1958 role as Leopold Bloom in Ulysses in Nighttown , a stage adaptation by Marjorie Barkentin of James Joyce's novel Ulysses. He reprised his role in 1974. His most famous film role was probably as Max Bialystock in Mel Brooks' The Producers.
He recorded an appearance on The Muppet Show, and has the macabre distinction of being the only guest to die before their episode aired. His last film appearance was as the voice of Kehaar in the animated adaptation of Watership Down.
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