biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1912–99)
|
| biography:
| Playwright, screenwriter, stage and film director, and writer, born in Rochester, NewYork, USA. He commenced his show-business career in the late 1920s as a jazz clarinetist and saxophonist, then became a vaudeville comedian. He studied at New York's American Academy of the Dramatic Arts, made his acting debut (1933), served as assistant director under George Abbott, and directed his first play, Hitch Your Wagon (1937). In Hollywood from 1938 he directed several films, and during World War 2 he made documentary films for the government, the most ambitious being the award-winning True Glory (1945), which he co-directed with Carol Reed. After 1946 he divided his time between Broadway and Hollywood. The best known of his many original stageplays is Born Yesterday (1946), and he directed such stage works as The Diary of Anne Frank (1955) and Funny Girl (1964). Among his many film credits are those for screenplays (sometimes in collaboration with his wife since 1942, Ruth Gordon), including Adam's Rib (1949) and Pat and Mike (1952). In 1950 he wrote a new English libretto for and collaborated in the direction of the Metropolitan Opera Company's Die Fledermaus, and also published several works of fiction and memoirs, including Tracy and Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir (1971) and Moviola (1979). |
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