Zero Mostel — actor with roots in the Austria-Hungary (Galicia)
Zero Mostel was an American actor and comedian born in Brooklyn to parents from Galicia (Russian Empire) who created two of Broadway's most iconic roles: Max Bialystock in The Producers (1967) and Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (1964). He was blacklisted during the McCarthy era and refused to name names.
Tracing the roots — Dziewietniki, Galicia (now Lviv Oblast, Ukraine)
No connection to the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union is documented in the sources checked. The entry previously recorded the family origin as 'Galicia (Russian Empire)', which is not correct.
Born Samuel Joel Mostel in Brooklyn in 1915 to Israel Mostel and Cina 'Celia' Druchs. His father was born at Dziewietniki, then in Austria-Hungary, later Poland and now in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine, and emigrated in 1898; his mother is recorded as a Polish Jew raised in Vienna, who emigrated in 1908. They met and married in the United States. Galicia was a crownland of Austria-Hungary and was never part of the Russian Empire.