Lee Strasberg

Lee Strasberg

Born: September 17, 1901
Died: February 17, 1982
in Budzanów, Austria-Hungary
​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.

Movies for Lee Strasberg...

Lee Strasberg: The Method Man
Title: Lee Strasberg: The Method Man
Character: Self
Released: July 23, 1997
Type: Movie
Documentary about the life of Lee Strasberg and the creation of Actor's Studio and the introduction of The Method in the USA.
bee
Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Title: Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre
Character: Self
Released: June 26, 1989
Type: Movie
A study of the Group Theatre, a company that changed the face of American drama. The Group was founded in 1931 by Cheryl Crawford, Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg, who were strongly influenced by the naturalistic acting of Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre.
bee
Night of 100 Stars
Title: Night of 100 Stars
Character: Self
Released: March 8, 1982
Type: Movie
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and costume changes, tape rewinding, and the like. Executive producer Alexander Cohen estimated that the 5,800 Radio City Music Hall seats sold out at prices ranging from $25 to $1,000. The show itself cost about $4 million to produce and was expected to yield around $2 million for the new addition to the Actors Fund retirement home in Englewood, N. J. ABC is reputed to have paid more than $5 million for the television rights.
bee
Skokie
Title: Skokie
Character: Morton Weisman
Released: November 17, 1981
Type: Movie
A dramatization of the controversial trial concerning the right for Neo-Nazis to march in the predominantly Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois.
bee
The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic
Title: The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic
Character: Hyman Roth
Released: March 24, 1981
Type: Movie
The Godfather 1901–1959: The Complete Epic is a reduced, 386-minute version of the 1977 television miniseries, "Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television," released to video in 1981. Unlike the miniseries, which was presented in four segments (each with opening and closing credits), the Epic is presented as a single segment. In January 2016, HBO aired the Epic in its uncut and uncensored format, later making it available on its streaming platforms. The HBO showing contained most of the known deleted scenes, thereby lengthening the runtime of the Epic from its video release to 423 minutes.
bee
Going in Style
Title: Going in Style
Character: Willie
Released: December 25, 1979
Type: Movie
Three senior citizens in their 70s who live together are slowly decaying in endless days with nothing to do but feed the birds. One of them comes up with an idea - rob a bank. They certainly could use the money if they get away with it and if they are caught, what could happen to three old men?
bee
Boardwalk
Title: Boardwalk
Character: David Rosen
Released: November 14, 1979
Type: Movie
In this drama, David Rosen and his wife Becky have lived in the same Coney Island neighborhood for nearly all their married life. But the area is not what it used to be, and a gang leader named Strut has decided to make Coney Island his new turf. Strut begins shaking down the merchants in the area, demanding payment for "protection" and using violence to deal with anyone who gets in his way. David refuses to give Strut protection money for the restaurant he owns, and as a result his diner is soon firebombed, while many of his neighbors are attacked and his synagogue is desecrated.
bee
...And Justice for All
Title: ...And Justice for All
Character: Grandpa Sam
Released: October 19, 1979
Type: Movie
An ethical Baltimore defense lawyer disgusted with rampant legal corruption is forced to defend a judge he despises in a rape trial under the threat of being disbarred.
bee
The Last Tenant
Title: The Last Tenant
Character: Frank
Released: June 25, 1978
Type: Movie
Family members face hard decisions about the care of their elderly father who needs constant care and can no longer safely live alone, which particularly affects the eldest son's life, placing his impending marriage in jeopardy.
bee
Title: Mario Puzo's The Godfather: The Complete Novel for Television
Character: Hyman Roth
Released: November 12, 1977
Type: TV
An adaptation of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II, re-edited in chronological order with additional footage not seen in the first two films added.
bee
The Cassandra Crossing
Title: The Cassandra Crossing
Character: Herman Kaplan
Released: December 18, 1976
Type: Movie
Passengers on a European train have been exposed to a deadly disease, and nobody will let them off the train.
bee
The Godfather Part II
Title: The Godfather Part II
Character: Hyman Roth
Released: December 20, 1974
Type: Movie
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
bee
Jane
Title: Jane
Character: Self
Released: January 2, 1962
Type: Movie
Documentary focusing on 25 year-old actress Jane Fonda as she and her director Andreas Voutsinas prepare a stage play called The Fun Couple for Broadway.
bee
The Gun Runners
Title: The Gun Runners
Character: Rhett
Released: August 1, 1958
Type: Movie
Remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on Hemingway short story. Plot reset to early days of Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper gets entangled in gunrunning scheme to get money to pay off debts. Sort of a sea-going film noir with bad girl, smarmy villain, and the "innocent" drawn into wrong side of law by circumstances.
bee
China Venture
Title: China Venture
Character: Patterson
Released: September 7, 1953
Type: Movie
American soldiers undertake a mission to capture a Japanese admiral who has survived an air crash in China during WWII.