| Born: June 14, 1919 | Died: December 18, 1993 | ||
| Chicago, Illinois | London, England |
Three Children: Abby, Zoe, Jessica
Studied at Drake University
Trained at Goodman Theatre, Chicago
Worked with Summer Stock Companies
1952 London Debut
1957 Appointed Director New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool
1958 Shakespeare Memorial Company, Stratford-upon-Avon
1960's-70's Produced works at Covent Garden, Elsewhere
1974 Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations
1945 trial run of Glass Menagerie (T. Williams)
1965 The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
1980 Private Benjamin
1984 Irreconcilable Differences
1986 Raw Deal
1987 Baby Boom
1987 Superman IV
1991 Guilty By Suspicion
1991 Pure Luck
1992 City of Joy
Ingrid Bergman
Michael Redgrave
Drew Barrymore
Annette Bening
Jaquiline Bissel
Yule Brynner
Tony Curtis
Robert DiNero
Richard Dryfus
Sean Penn
Christopher Plummer
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Martin Scorsesee
Martin Sheen
Sharon Stone
Meryl Streep
A man of no more than middle height the stage could scarcely contain. Finger jabbing, jaw jutting, spitting out his words as if expectorating his soul. (Day, 43)
Sam Wanamaker was the son of Maurice and Molly Watenmaker, Russian Jews whose families fled to U.S. in 1905. They met in Chicago, married and raised two sons, Bill (born 1917) and Sam (born 1919). Sam Wanamaker grew up in the era of Al Capone. Frequently being forced to fight his way out of school past Jew baiters lead Wanamaker to consider a career in boxing. He was later quoted on a radio program: "Constant aggression and fighting for survival shapes you."
Wanamaker eventually went to Drake University to study law, but his real interest was in acting. He was accepted into Goodman Theatre School in Chicago, and made his acting debut at age 17. He joined the Globe Shakespearean Theatre Group, possibly prompted to do so by his first experience with the Globe at the 1933-34 World's Fair. Through this group, he would have his second experience with Globe, at the 1937 Great Lakes Festival. A half-hearted replica of the Globe had been constructed in Cleveland, Ohio, for the festival. At this festival, Wanamaker performed Shakespeare for the first time.
Figure 14: Picture of Sam Wanamaker at Great Lakes Festival, 1937 (Day, 46)
At the beginning of his career, Wanamaker directed a number of plays for the Jewish Peoples' Institute. However, this was not where his real interest lay. In the late 1930's, he began moonlighting on radio shows. During this time, he met Charlotte Holland, a fellow actor. When a particular radio show he was working on moved to New York City, he married her. Together, they moved from the Windy City to the Big Apple. New York gave Wanamaker the chance to try his hand on Broadway, and he began to develop a name for himself, interrupted only briefly by an appearance in World War II. Things were going well for Wanamaker until 1947, when Senator Joeseph McCarthy began to put pressure on many of the members of the acting community. Though Wanamaker was not placed on Senator McCarthy's original blacklist, he had reason to fear that he would not escape McCarthy's notice. He was raised in working class Chicago, the son of a union organizer. Furthermore, he had taken a trip to Washington to support the 10 actors who had made the list. In 1949, Wanamaker signed a contract to appear in a film titled Christ in Concrete. The film was a grim story about an immigrant worker who, during the depression, could only find work on a non-union building site, and ends up drowning in a pool of concrete. Because many of the people involved in the film had been included on the blacklist, it was decided that the film be filmed in England. It was released there as Give Us this Day. Given the fact that once blacklisted, one would be essentially unemployable in the US, when Wanamaker was offered further work in England, he decided to stay.
In 1952, Laurence Olivier asked Wanamaker to direct and act opposite Michael Redgrave in Winter Journey, at the St James Theatre. The two had very contrasting styles, but the audience thoroughly enjoyed the production. Wanamaker was "in." Wanamaker became the West End's favorite American actor, and played in almost every role that called for a "brash and virile" American. Audiences flocked to see his physical and confrontational style. His performances with Redgrave were described as being "among the peaks of post-war acting," and Redgrave himself commented later that "not the least of personal influences on my work has been Sam Wanamaker. A great quarrel, like a great love affair, sharpens the intelligence."
In 1957, Wanamaker was given his first chance to run his own theatre, The Shakespeare. Backed by the money of Anna Deere Wiman, Wanamaker created the New Shakespeare Culture Centre, which included a theatre, children's theatre, film society, restaurant, social center, lectures, art exhibitions, and concerts. It was literally a "round the clock people's recreational center." The concept was that while most theatres only functioned for three hours a day, and were therefore, only profitable for three hours a day, the centre would be functional (and profitable) for as many hours as possible. And profitable it was. By the time 6 months had passed, it boasted over 19,000 members. However, differences in opinion of how to run the centre caused an eventual break in the relationship between Wanamaker and Wiman, and the Centre was closed in 1959. It would be taken over and run by various other parties until 1976, when it closed for good. In the meantime, Wanamaker returned to acting, and to Shakespeare, joining a company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1961, Wanamaker was invited to play a part in an off-shore Hollywood film. The days of Joe McCarthy long past, Wanamaker jumped at the chance, and it led to a string of further parts. Wanamaker would spend the rest of his life split between his two homelands, until his death in 1993.
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| Lesson 3.1 | T.O.C. | Lesson 4.0 |