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Mostel, (Samuel Joel) Zero
Mostel, [Samuel Joel] Zero (1915–77), actor. The hefty, cocky comedian was born in New York where he studied art at New York University. His earliest professional performances were given in small Greenwich Village nightclubs, followed by roles in several Broadway shows before calling attention to himself as Leopold Bloom in an Off‐Broadway production of Ulysses in Nighttown (1958). He consolidated his reputation with his playing of John, the clerk who turns into a wild animal, in Rhinoceros (1961). Moving to musicals, Mostel starred as the clever slave Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) and the poor dairyman Teyve in Fiddler on the Roof (1964), the latter generally recognized as the high point of his career, and he returned to it for several revivals. Newsweek wrote that from his performance “there radiates so supple, luminous, and wide a light as to transform the stage into a scene of high, compelling art. When he sings ‘If I were a rich man. . . ’ he follows these words with a sighing, dream‐tasting spiral of Yiddish scat‐syllables which become the anthem of yearning for poor men everywhere.” He was on tryout tour with The Merchant at the time of his death.
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Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Mostel, (Samuel Joel) Zero." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Mostel, (Samuel Joel) Zero." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-MostelSamuelJoelZero.html Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. "Mostel, (Samuel Joel) Zero." The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. 2004. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O149-MostelSamuelJoelZero.html |
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Mostel, Zero
Mostel, Zero [ Samuel Joel] (1915–77), American actor, a huge, moon-faced man of enormous talent, who gained his theatrical experience in Greenwich Village night clubs before appearing in vaudeville on Broadway in 1942. In 1946 he was seen as Hamilton Peachum in Beggar's Holiday, an adaptation of Gay's The Beggar's Opera with music by Duke Ellington, and in 1952 he played Argan in The Imaginary Invalid, his own adaptation of Molière's Le Malade imaginaire. Among his later parts were Shu Fu in Brecht's The Good Woman of Setzuan in 1956, Leopold Bloom in a dramatization of part of Joyce's Ulysses as Ulysses in Nighttown in 1958, John in Ionesco's Rhinoceros in 1961, and Prologus in the highly successful musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1962. In 1964 he scored a great success in the musical Fiddler on the Roof. He died while on a pre-Broadway tour.
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PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Mostel, Zero." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Mostel, Zero." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MostelZero.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Mostel, Zero." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-MostelZero.html |
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Zero Mostel
Zero Mostel , 1915–77, American actor, b. New York City as Samuel Joel Mostel. Mostel made his Broadway debut in Keep 'Em Laughing (1942). A comic actor with an expressive face, he combined a large paunch with acrobatic grace. His major stage appearances include Ulysses in Nighttown (1958 and 1974), Rhinoceros (1961; film, 1973), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962; film, 1966), and Fiddler on the Roof (1964). Mostel's other films include The Producers (1968).
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Cite this article
"Zero Mostel." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Zero Mostel." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Mostel-Z.html "Zero Mostel." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Mostel-Z.html |
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