Anna Eileen Heckart was an American stage and screen actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years.
Shirley Booth was an American actress. One of 24 performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, Booth was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and three Tony Awards.
Marsha Mason is an American actress and director. She has been nominated four times for the Academy Award for Best Actress: for her performances in Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Goodbye Girl (1977), Chapter Two (1979), and Only When I Laugh (1981). The first two films also won her Golden Globe Awards. She was married for ten years (1973–1983) to the playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, who was the writer of three of her four Oscar-nominated roles.
Keir Atwood Dullea is an American actor. He played astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and its 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. His other film roles include David and Lisa (1962), Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) and Black Christmas (1974). Dullea studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City. He has also performed on stage in New York City and in regional theaters; he has said that, despite being more recognized for his film work, he prefers the stage.
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972), and Wicked (2003). He has contributed lyrics to a number of successful films, including Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), The Prince of Egypt, and Enchanted (2007).
Pippin is a 1972 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson. Bob Fosse, who directed the original Broadway production, also contributed to the libretto. The musical uses the premise of a mysterious performance troupe, led by the Leading Player, to tell the story of Pippin, a young prince on his search for meaning and significance. The 'fourth wall' is broken numerous times during most traditional productions.
Cleavon Jake Little was an American stage, film, and television actor. He began his career in the late 1960s on the stage. In 1970, he starred in the Broadway production of Purlie, for which he earned both a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award. His first leading television role was that of the irreverent Dr. Jerry Noland on the ABC sitcom Temperatures Rising (1972–1974). While starring in the sitcom, Little appeared in what has become his signature performance, portraying Sheriff Bart in the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy film Blazing Saddles.
Butterflies Are Free is a 1972 American comedy-drama film based on the 1969 play by Leonard Gershe. The 1972 film was produced by M. J. Frankovich, released by Columbia Pictures, directed by Milton Katselas and adapted for the screen by Gershe. It was released on July 6, 1972, in the U.S. The film is about a woman, Jill Tanner, who moves into an apartment beside a blind man, Don Baker, who has recently moved out on his own. The two become attracted to each other, and combine the divided apartment into one, but Don's mother tries to end the romance, fearing that Jill will break her son's heart.
Robert Lawrence Leonard, known by his stage name Robert Sean Leonard, is an American actor. He is known for playing Dr. James Wilson in the television series House (2004–2012) and Neil Perry in the film Dead Poets Society.
Roger Edens was a Hollywood composer, arranger and associate producer, and is considered one of the major creative figures in Arthur Freed's musical film production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer during the "golden era of Hollywood".
Douglas Hodge is an English actor, director, and musician who has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as television and film where he has appeared in Robin Hood (2010), Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return and Diana (2013), Penny Dreadful (2016), Catastrophe (2018), Joker and Lost in Space (2019), The Great (2021),
Milton George Katselas was an American director and producer of stage and film, as well as a Hollywood acting instructor and coach who trained under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg at the acclaimed Actors Studio in New York City. In 1978, he acquired the Beverly Hills Playhouse, where he taught a master class for many years.
Julia Kathleen Murney is an American actress and singer, also known for television commercial voice-overs. Until 2005, she was commonly known as the Broadway actress who had technically never appeared on Broadway. This was because her fame came mostly from her performances on the Broadway charity circuit, and not traditional Broadway productions. She played the role of Elphaba in the musical Wicked, both on the US national tour (2006) and on Broadway (2007). She is also a two-time Drama Desk Award nominee, for The Wild Party (2000) and Falling (2013).
Richard Backus is an American actor and television writer. He has been nominated for four Daytime Emmy Awards for writing and one for acting.
Leonard Gershe was an American playwright, screenwriter, and lyricist.
Mia Dillon is an American actress.
40 Carats is a 1973 American romantic comedy film directed by Milton Katselas. It is based on the 1968 play of the same name by Jay Presson Allen. The screenplay was written by Leonard Gershe.
Margot Bennett is an American publicist and former actress who appeared in various stage, television and film roles between the years 1957 and 1973. She is best known for her appearances in the films O Lucky Man! and Who Killed Teddy Bear, and for being the first wife of both actor Keir Dullea and, later, actor Malcolm McDowell.
Harold Eliot "Hal" Krents was a blind American lawyer, author, and activist. He became known for the two movies based on his life: To Race the Wind, based on his autobiography, and Butterflies Are Free based on a play of the same name.
Luke Yankee is an American writer, playwright, and director.
