From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gene Saks (born November 8, 1921) is an American Tony Award-winning stage and film director.
Life and
career
Saks was born in New York City, the son of Beatrix (née
Lewkowitz) and Morris J. Saks.[1] Saks
studied at Cornell University and trained
acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the
influential German director Erwin Piscator.
Saks has shared a long-term professional relationship with playwright/comedy writer Neil Simon, directing his
plays Biloxi
Blues, Brighton Beach Memoirs,
Jake's
Women, Rumors, Lost in Yonkers, Broadway
Bound, The Odd Couple, and California
Suite. Additional Broadway credits include Enter
Laughing; Half a Sixpence; Mame; I Love My
Wife; Same Time, Next Year; and
Rags.
Among Saks' screen credits are Cactus
Flower, which won Goldie Hawn the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, Barefoot in the Park,
The Last of the Red Hot
Lovers, The Odd Couple, Mame, So I Married an Axe
Murderer (uncredited), and the 1995 television production
of Bye Bye
Birdie.
Saks made his acting debut on Broadway in South Pacific in 1949. On
stage he also appeared in A Shot in the Dark, The Tenth Man,
and A
Thousand Clowns, in the role of Leo "Chuckles The
Chipmunk" Herman, which he reprised in the film version. He
portrayed Jack
Lemmon's brother in the screen adaptation of Simon's The Prisoner of Second
Avenue.
Saks was married to actress Bea Arthur from 1950-1978.
Awards
and nominations
- Awards
- 1977 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Musical - I Love My Wife
- 1983 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Play - Brighton Beach Memoirs
- 1985 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Play - Biloxi Blues
- Nominations
- 1965 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Musical - Half a Sixpence
- 1966 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Musical - Mame
- 1969 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial
Achievement in a Movie - The Odd Couple
- 1975 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director
of a Play - Same Time, Next Year
- 1975 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Play - Same Time, Next Year
- 1977 Drama
Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - I Love
My Wife
- 1985 Drama
Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play - Biloxi
Blues
- 1987 Drama
Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Play - Broadway
Bound
- 1991 Tony Award
for Best Direction of a Play - Lost in Yonkers
References
External
links
| The films of Gene
Saks |
|
| 1960s |
|
|
| 1970s |
Last of the Red Hot Lovers
• Mame
|
|
| 1980s |
Brighton Beach
Memoirs
|
|
| 1990s |
|
|
| Television |
Bye Bye Birdie
(1995)
|
|
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