A portly character player of TV, film and stage, Mostel may be best remembered as the uncle who eats pork on Yom Kippur and gets sick in Woody Allen's nostalgic "Radio Days" (1987) and as the ice cream magnate with a knack for choosing just the right flavor for any occasion in Ron Underwood's "City Slickers" (1991) and its sequel.

The son of Broadway legend Zero Mostel, whom he somewhat resembles, Josh Mostel began in show business as a boy soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He had already made his professional stage debut in 1968 before graduating from Brandeis University.