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Jeremiah Morris (born Jerome Maurice Gomberg, April 4, 1929, in the Bronx, New York; died March 5, 2006, in Culver City, California) was an American actor and television and theater director. Morris, influential in Los Angeles theater, appeared in Broadway plays and on popular television series for close to 40 years and directed television and theater productions.
A New York City native, Morris began working in the theater in the 1950s, appearing as an actor in a number of Broadway plays including a 1961 production of Daughter of Silence by Morris West and based on West's novel. He also appeared in Jennie, a 1963 musical starring Mary Martin. During that period, he worked as a television actor, making guest appearances on Naked City , The Honeymooners , Car 54, Where Are You? , WKRP in Cincinnati . He continued his television acting career through the 1990s, with guest roles on Cheers , Mad About You , NewsRadio and Frasier . He also directed episodes of Barney Miller , Fish , Diff'rent Strokes , Too Close for Comfort , Quincy, M.E. and Tony Orlando and Dawn , among other series.
In his theater work, Morris focused on directing from the early 1970s. One of his first major assignments was directing the touring production of Neil Simon's The Gingerbread Lady in 1972. In 1973 he directed Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller in a production of The Prisoner Of Second Avenue that toured the midwest including the infamous Kenley Playhouse in Warren, Ohio. All in all, he helmed hundreds of productions, on and off Broadway, on national tours and in regional theaters, directing legends such as Al Pacino, Jose Ferrer and Mickey Rooney.
In 1989, Morris accepted a job as artistic director of the Actors Alley theater in the San Fernando Valley. [1] During his more than 10 years with the company, the eclectic program list featured works by George Bernard Shaw and Charles Dickens as well as modern plays, including Susan Sandler's Crossing Delancey , produced in partnership with the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University). The Actors Alley moved into the historic El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood in 1995 and performed in a small space for several years until the main stage was renovated. Morris left the artistic director post in 2000.
Nathan Lane is an American actor. In a career spanning over 40 years he has been seen on stage and screen in roles both comedic and dramatic. Lane has received numerous awards including three Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2006, Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".
Richard Earl Thomas is an American actor. He is best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons for which he won an Emmy Award. He also received another Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe Award nominations, for that role.
Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director, and drama teacher known for his comedic roles on stage, film, and television. Reilly performed in the original Broadway casts of Bye Bye Birdie, Hello, Dolly!, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. His television credits include The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and Match Game. A recording of his autobiographical one-man play Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly was adapted into a 2006 independent film.
Lon Leonard Chapman was an American actor best known for his numerous guest star appearances on television drama series.
Leonard Joseph Cariou is a Canadian actor and stage director, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical, and for playing the patriarch Henry Reagan, NYPD Police Commissioner (retired), in the multi-generational television series Blue Bloods on CBS.
Roger Rees was a Welsh actor and director, widely known for his stage work. He won an Olivier Award and a Tony Award for his performance as the lead in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also received Obie Awards for his role in The End of the Day and as co-director of Peter and the Starcatcher. Rees was posthumously inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in November 2015.
Peter Frechette is an American actor. He is a stage actor with two Tony Award nominations for Eastern Standard and Our Country's Good, and frequently stars in the plays of Richard Greenberg. He is well known on TV for playing hacker George on the NBC series Profiler and Peter Montefiore on Thirtysomething. In film, he is known for playing T-Bird Louis DiMucci in the musical Grease 2.
Timothy Busfield is an American actor and director. He has played Elliot Weston on the television series thirtysomething; Mark, the brother-in-law of Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams; and Danny Concannon on the television series The West Wing. In 1991 he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for thirtysomething. He is also the founder of the 501(c)(3) non-profit arts organization Theatre for Children, Inc.
Anthony Crivello is an American actor whose portrayals span stage and screen. Notably, he appeared in the original cast of several Broadway shows, including Les Misérables, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Golden Boy, Marie Christine, and The News. In 1993, he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his performance as Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Chuck Wagner is an American actor, director, musical theater historian and teacher. He has had an extensive career in theater, but is perhaps best known for co-starring in the short-lived science fiction TV series Automan (1983–84).
Melvin Richard "Dakin" Matthews is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and theatrical scholar. Best known as Herb Kelcher in My Two Dads (1987–1989), Hanlin Charleston in Gilmore Girls (2000–2007), and as Reverend Sikes in Desperate Housewives (2004–2012).
Lonny Price is an American director, actor, and writer, primarily in theatre. He is perhaps best known for his creation of the role of Charley Kringas in the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along and for his New York directing work including Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert.
Casey Childs is the Founder of Primary Stages (www.primarystages.org)],[1] a New York State non-profit, Off-Broadway theater company in New York City. Since 1984 they have produced over 175 productions of new plays, many of them world premieres and all of them New York City premieres, by such writers as Sharon Washington, David Ives, Horton Foote, Charlayne Woodard, Melissa Manchester, Jeffrey Sweet, Donald Margulies, Terrence McNally, A.R. Gurney, John Patrick Shanley, Ike Holter, Tina Howe, Charles Busch, John Henry Redwood, Romulus Linney, Lee Blessing, Michael Cristofer, Mac Wellman, Lynne Alvarez, Willie Holtzman, Athol Fugard, Theresa Rebeck, Michael Hollinger and Julia Jordan. He produced the commercial moves of David Ives’ All in the Timing and Mere Mortals and oversaw the commercial moves of Charles Busch's You Should Be So Lucky and Colin Martin's Virgins and Other Myths. He also oversaw the transfer of Horton Foote's Dividing the Estate, which moved to the Booth Theatre on Broadway in association with Lincoln Center Theater. In 2013 in partnership with the New York Yankees, Primary Stages developed Bronx Bombers which played on Broadway at Circle in the Square. Primary Stages was the first theater to produce Conor McPherson work in the United States with St. Nicholas starring Brian Cox. He conceived, commissioned and directed the commercial Off-Broadway show Woman Before a Glass by Lanie Robertson about Peggy Guggenheim with Mercedes Ruehl which ran for seven months at the Promenade Theatre. Other plays he directed for Primary Stages include The Morini Strad by Willie Holtzman, Barefoot Boy With Shoes On by Edwin Sanchez, Bargains by Jack Heifner, Brutality of Fact by Keith Reddin, The Preservation Society by William S. Leavengood, Elsa/Edgar by Bob Kingdom, The Dolphin Position by Percy Granger, Lusting After Pipino's Wife by Sam Henry Kass, The Secret Sits in the Middle by Lisa-Maria Radano, Algerian Romance by Kres Mersky, Madam Zelena Finally Comes Clean by Ron Carlsen, Stopping the Desert by Glen Merzer, In September Woods by David Hill and Nasty Little Secrets by Lanie Robertson. Plays produced by Primary Stages have received many nominations and awards from the Obies, the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle and the Audelco Awards for Excellence in Afro-American Theatre. Plays that began at Primary Stages have received multiple nominations for Tony Awards. In 2008, Primary Stages was honored for its Outstanding Body of Work by the Lucille Lortel Awards. Carnegie-Mellon University awarded Casey their Commitment to Playwrights Award in 1995. From 1982 until 1985 Casey was the Artistic Programs Director for the New Dramatists, America's oldest playwrights’ organization, where he conducted the workshops for over 75 new playwrights in developing over 300 new works. He oversaw the development of new plays by many new playwrights including August Wilson, Wendy Kesselman, John Ford Noonan, Thomas Keneally, Emily Mann, John Pielmeier, Steve Carter, Oyamo, James Yoshimora and Pedro Juan Pietre. Works developed during that time have received productions on and off Broadway and in many American regional theatres garnering Pulitzer Prizes, Tony Awards and other honors.
Roderick Cook was an English playwright, writer, theatre director and actor of stage, television and film. Cook is known for creating, directing and starring in the musical review Oh, Coward! and portraying Count Von Strack in the Oscar-winning film Amadeus.
Jack Manning was an American film, television and theater character actor, teacher and stage director.
Gilles Chiasson is an American producer, director, composer, writer and actor. While he first came to prominence as an actor, particularly in the original cast of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning RENT, Chiasson went on to work in film and television development and now focuses on theater administration and operations. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Sherri Parker Lee and their two sons.
Ron Cephas Jones is an American actor. He is best known for his role as William Hill in the drama series This Is Us (2016–2022), which earned him four consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning twice for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series in 2018 and 2020.
William Hardy was an American actor and theatre director with a lifelong career on both the stage and screen.
Tristan Sturrock is a British theatre, television and film actor. He has worked with the theatre company Kneehigh for 30 years. He played the role of Zacky Martin in Poldark in all five seasons, which aired from 2015 to 2019 in the UK. He has performed in many productions including Brief Encounter on Broadway and Mayday, Mayday, an autobiographical solo project which he wrote and performed internationally.
Michael Warren Powell was an American artistic director, director, actor and designer involved in the Off-Off-Broadway movement, Off-Broadway and in the development of new American plays.