Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg
January 20, 1978: Lee Strasberg talks about his craft during a two-week seminar in Germany.
Birth name	Israel Lee Strassberg
Born	November 17 1901(1901-11-17) Budzanów, Austria-Hungary
Died	February 17 1982 (aged 80) New York City, New York

Lee Strasberg (November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an Academy Award nominated Austro-Hungarian-American director, actor, producer, and acting teacher. He was born Israel Strassberg in Budzanów, former Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Budaniv, Ukraine), to Ida and Baruch Meyer Strassberg.

Career

In 1931, Lee Strasberg became one of the co-founders of the Group Theatre, a company which included such legends as Elia Kazan, John Garfield, Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner, Franchot Tone, and Robert Lewis. It is rarely mentioned that Strasberg left the Group Theatre in 1935 because of his controversial theories on acting, mostly challenged by Stella Adler, who later visited Russian Master Acting Trainer Konstantin Stanislavski who said he abandoned the thoughts that had influenced Strasberg. In 1936, Strasberg became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1949, he began a lengthy career at the Actors Studio in New York City. Within two years, he was artistic director and the now-renowned institution's reputation flourished. Actors under his tutelage there included Burt Young, Geraldine Page, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Kim Stanley, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Fonda, James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Eli Wallach, Eva Marie Saint, Robert De Niro, Jill Clayburgh, Ellen Burstyn, Gene Wilder, Steve McQueen and Dennis Hopper. In 1966, he established the "Actors Studio West" in Los Angeles. In 1969, he began the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles.^[1] While rarely stepping in front of the camera himself (he appeared in just seven films), he received most attention for the role of Hyman Roth in The Godfather: Part II. Roth is an elderly Jewish organized crime figure retired to Miami, having become the overlord of criminal enterprise in Cuba; in the course of the film he incurs the wrath of Michael Corleone, played by Strasberg's former student Al Pacino. Strasberg received an Academy Award nomination for this performance, losing to Robert DeNiro, another one of his former students. Strasberg also gained critical acclaims for his role as one of the three bank robbers in the film Going in Style. Strasberg is considered by many to be the patriarch of American "method" acting. He provided inspiration for generations of actors during his lifetime and a lasting legacy for generations to come. Modern theater thought, however, seems to be more captivated with simpler acting methods like those of Sanford Meisner and David Mamet.

Personal life

The rock at Lee Strasberg's grave at Westchester Hills Cemetery

He was married to his second wife, the actress and drama coach Paula Strasberg from 1934 until her death from cancer in 1966. They were the parents of actress Susan Strasberg and acting teacher John Strasberg. Lee Strasberg's third wife was the former Anna Mizrahi, a Sephardic Jew who was born in Israel and the mother of his two youngest children, David and Adam.

Lee Strasberg died of a heart attack in New York City at the age of 80; his eldest children and only grandchild were disinherited in the will. Strasberg is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York.

Work on Broadway

Note: All works are plays and the original productions unless otherwise noted.

• Four Walls (1927) - Actor
• The Vegetable (1929) - Director
• Red Rust (1929) - Actor
• Green Grow the Lilacs (1931) - Actor
• The House of Connelly (1931) - Co-Director
• 1931 (1931) - Director
• Success Story (1932) - Director
• Men in White (1933) - Director
• Gentlewoman (1934) - Director
• Gold Eagle Guy (1934) - Director
• Paradise Lost (1935) - Produced by Group Theatre
• Case of Clyde Griffiths (1936) - Director, Produced by Group Theatre
• Johnny Johnson (1936) - Director, Produced by Group Theatre
• Many Mansions (1937) - Director
• Golden Boy (1937) - Produced by Group Theatre
• Roosty (1938) - Director
• Casey Jones (1938) - Produced by Group Theatre
• All the Living (1938) - Director
• Dance Night (1938) - Director
• Rocket to the Moon (1938) - Produced by Group Theatre
• The Gentle People (1939) - Produced by Group Theatre
• Awake and Sing! (1939), revival - Produced by Group Theatre
• Summer Night (1939) - Director
• Night Music (1940) - Produced by Group Theatre
• The Fifth Column (1940) - Director
• Clash by Night (1941) - Director
• A Kiss for Cinderella (1942), revival - Director
• R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1942), revival - Director
• Apology (1943) - Producer and Director
• South Pacific (1943, apparently no relation to the Broadway musical South Pacific) - Director
• Skipper Next to God (1948) - Director
• The Big Knife (1949) - Director
• The Closing Door (1949) - Director
• The Country Girl (1950) - Co-Producer
• Peer Gynt (1951), (revival) - Director
• Strange Interlude (1963), (revival) - Produced by The Actors Studio - Tony Award Co-nomination for Best Producer of a Play
• Marathon '33 (1963) - Production supervisor
• The Three Sisters (1964), (revival) - Director, Produced by The Actors Studio

See also

• Method acting

External links

• Official website
• The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute
• Lee Strasberg at the Internet Movie Database
• Lee Strasberg at the Internet Broadway Database
• John Strasberg Studios
• Photo & Gravesite

References

1. ^ A Timeline of Lee