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Lee Strasberg

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Lee Strasberg (November 17, 1901 – February 17, 1982) was an American actor, director and acting teacher.  He cofounded, with directors Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford, the Group Theatre in 1931, which was hailed as "America's first true theatrical collective".  In 1951, he became director of the non-profit Actors Studio, in New York City, considered "the nation's most prestigious acting school".  In 1969, Strasberg founded the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City and in Hollywood to teach the work he pioneered. He is considered the "father of method acting in America," according to author Mel Gussow, and from the 1920s until his death in 1982 "he revolutionized the art of acting by having a profound influence on performance in American theater and movies".  From his base in New York, he trained several generations of theatre and film's most illustrious talents, including Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Harris, Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and director Elia Kazan.  Former student Elia Kazan directed James Dean in East of Eden (1955), for which Kazan and Dean were nominated for Academy Awards. As a student, Dean wrote that Actors Studio was "the greatest school of the theater [and] the best thing that can happen to an actor".  Playwright Tennessee Williams, writer of A Streetcar Named Desire, said of Strasberg's actors, "They act from the inside out. They communicate emotions they really feel. They give you a sense of life." Directors like Sidney Lumet, a former student, have intentionally used actors skilled in Strasberg's "Method".  Kazan, in his autobiography, wrote, "He carried with him the aura of a prophet, a magician, a witch doctor, a psychoanalyst, and a feared father of a Jewish home.... [H]e was the force that held the thirty-odd members of the theatre together, and made them 'permanent.'"  :61 Today, Ellen Burstyn, Al Pacino, and Harvey Keitel lead this nonprofit studio dedicated to the development of actors, playwrights, and directors. Description above from the Wikipedia article Lee Strasberg, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


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Born:
Sep 17, 1901 In Budzanów, Austria-Hungary
Movie/TV Credits:
14
First Appeared:
In the movie China Venture 1953-09-07
Latest Project:
Movie Becoming Al Pacino 2022-02-06
Known For
Poster of Going in Style
Poster of Boardwalk
Poster of The Cassandra Crossing
Poster of The Gun Runners
Filmography
Movie Becoming Al Pacino Self (archive footage) 2022-02-06
Movie Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre Self 1989-06-26
Movie Night of 100 Stars Self 1982-03-08
Movie Skokie Morton Weisman 1981-11-17
Movie The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic Hyman Roth 1981-03-24
Movie ...And Justice for All Grandpa Sam 1979-10-19
Movie Boardwalk David Rosen 1979-11-14
Movie Going in Style Willie 1979-12-25
Series Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television Hyman Roth 1977-11-12
Movie The Cassandra Crossing Herman Kaplan 1976-12-18
Movie The Godfather Part II Hyman Roth 1974-12-20
Movie Jane Self 1962-01-02
Movie The Gun Runners Rhett 1958-08-01
Movie China Venture Patterson 1953-09-07