Sam Wanamaker


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Sam Wanamaker
Born June 14, 1919
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died December 18, 1993 (aged 74)
London, England
Spouse(s) Charlotte Holland

Sam Wanamaker (June 14, 1919 – December 18, 1993) was an American film director and actor, credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Wanamaker was born Samuel Wanamaker in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Jewish immigrants Molly Bobele and Morris Wanamaker. He began his acting career at the age of just 17. After training at the Goodman Theatre, Chicago, he began working with summer stock theatre companies in Chicago and northern Wisconsin (where he helped build the stage of the Peninsula Players Theatre in 1937) and worked on Broadway and in travelling shows. In 1940, he married Charlotte Holland, an American radio soap star of the 1940s and later an actress. He attended Drake University, Iowa prior to serving in the U.S. Army between 1943 and 1946 during the Second World War.

Blacklisted by the House on Un-American Activities Committee

In 1952 at the height of the McCarthy "Red Scare" period, despite his distinguished service in the U.S. Army during World War II, Wanamaker learned that he had become blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, which he discovered while filming Mr. Denning Drives North in the UK. Wanamaker consequently decided not to return to the United States. Instead, he reestablished his career in England, as actor on stage and screen, director and producer.

England and America

In 1957, he was appointed director of the New Shakespeare Theatre, in Liverpool. In 1959, he joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In the 1960s and 1970s, he produced or directed several works at Covent Garden and elsewhere including the Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations in 1974. In the 1970s, Wanamaker began an intimate, long-standing relationship with the then-widowed American actress, Jan Sterling.

He worked both as a director and actor in both films and television, and his appearances included such movies as The Spiral Staircase (1974), Private Benjamin (1980), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), and Baby Boom (1987). He also directed stage productions. In 1980, he directed Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" starring Luciano Pavarotti at San Francisco Opera (now broadcast version released as DVD).

The Man Who Built the Globe

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Southbank, London, 2004
Blue plaque to Wanamaker outside the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Wanamaker founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust to rebuild the Globe Theatre in London, and played a central role in realizing the project, eventually raising well over ten million dollars. According to the New York Times, it became Wanamaker's "Great Obsession" to realize an exact replica of William Shakespeare's first Globe Theatre, eventually securing the financial support of philanthropist and fellow lover of Shakespeare, Samuel H. Scripps.[1]

According to Karl Meyer of The New York Times:

The Shakespeare project helped Mr. Wanamaker keep his sanity and dignity intact. On his first visit to London in 1949, he had sought traces of the original theater and was astonished to find only a blackened plaque on an unused brewery. He found this neglect inexplicable, and in 1970 launched the Shakespeare Globe Trust, later obtaining the building site and necessary permissions despite a hostile local council. He siphoned his earnings as actor and director into the project, undismayed by the skepticism of his British colleagues.[1]

On the south bank of the Thames River in London, near where the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe stands today, is a plaque that reads:

In Thanksgiving for Sam Wanamaker, Actor, Director, Producer, 1919-1993, whose vision rebuilt Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Bankside in this parish.[1]

There is a blue plaque on the riverside wall of the theatre.

Wanamaker died of prostate cancer in London at the age of 74,[2] before his dream could be finalized, and prior to the grand opening by HM the Queen in June 1997.[3] He was survived by three daughters, Abby, Jessica and the actress Zoë Wanamaker.

Films and TV

Actor

Notable TV guest appearances

Director

References

  1. ^ a b c "Sam Wanamaker's Great Obsession," by Karl E. Meyer, The New York Times, December 29, 1996.
  2. ^ Obituary for Sam Wanamaker, New York Times, December 19, 1993
  3. ^ Shakespeare's Globe :: Sam Wanamaker

External links







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