ODETS, CLIFFORD

ODETS, CLIFFORD
ODETS, CLIFFORD (1906–1963), U.S playwright. Born in Philadelphia and raised in the Bronx, New York, Odets became an actor at the age of 15. He was a cofounder of the Group Theater, where his one-act play, Waiting for Lefty (1935), based on the New York taxi strike of 1934, brought him early success. Two more plays were staged in the same year: Awake and Sing\!, a drama about poor New York Jews, marked an important turning point in the portrayal of the Jew on the American stage; and Till the Day I Die dealt with left-wing German opposition to the Nazis. These brought Odets to the fore as the most promising playwright of the new generation. He expressed perhaps better than any dramatist of his time the hardships of the great depression of the 1930s, and while his works have lost some of their original appeal, they were in their day of considerable social significance. Their impact owed much to their vivid dialogue and characterization. Probably the finest example of the latter quality is Golden Boy (1937), the story of a musician turned prizefighter, which was made into a musical in 1964. Odets also wrote Rocket to the Moon (1938), and Clash by Night (1941). After spending many years as a screen-writer in Hollywood, he returned to Broadway with The Big Knife (1949), a play dealing with the corrupting influence of the film colony. Two later plays were The Country Girl (1950) and The Flowering Peach (1954), a new version of the biblical story of Noah in terms of Jewish family life. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Murray, Clifford Odets: The Thirties and After (1968); R.B. Shuman, Clifford Odets (1962); J. Gould, Modern   American Playwrights (1966), 186–203; S.J. Kunitz (ed), Twentieth Century Authors, first suppl. (1955), incl. bibl. (Joseph Mersand)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

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  • Odets, Clifford — born July 18, 1906, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. died Aug. 14, 1963, Hollywood, Calif. U.S. playwright. He acted with repertory companies in 1923–28 and joined the Group Theatre in 1931. His first play, the social protest drama Waiting for Lefty… …   Universalium

  • Odets, Clifford — (1906–63)    US playwright. Clifford Odets was a prominent member of that group of playwrights whose experience of the depression found expression in a theatre of social protest and hard hitting realism. He was born in Philadelphia but spent his… …   Who’s Who in Jewish History after the period of the Old Testament

  • Odets,Clifford — O·dets (ō dĕtsʹ), Clifford. 1906 1963. American playwright known for his powerful works of the Depression era, including Waiting for Lefty (1935) and Golden Boy (1937). * * * …   Universalium

  • Odets, Clifford — (1906 63)    American playwright. Born in Philadelphia, his family moved to the Bronx. In 1925 he began to present radio programmes that he wrote himself. In 1935 his play Waiting for Lefty was produced; this was followed by Till the Day I Die,… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Odets, Clifford — (18 jul. 1906, Filadelfia, Pa., EE.UU.–14 ago. 1963, Hollywood, Cal.). Dramaturgo estadounidense. Actuó en compañías de repertorio entre 1923–28 y se unió al Group Theatre en 1931, que produjo su primera obra, Esperando al zurdo (1935), un drama… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Odets, Clifford —  (1906–1963) American playwright …   Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors

  • Odets, Clifford —    см. Одетс, Клиффорд …   Писатели США. Краткие творческие биографии

  • Clifford Odets — photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1937 Born July 18, 1906(1906 07 18) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Died …   Wikipedia

  • Odets — Clifford Odets 1937 Clifford Odets (* 18. Juli 1906 in Philadelphia; † 18. August 1963 in Glendale) war ein amerikanischer Bühnen und Drehbuchautor und Schauspieler. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • ODETS (C.) — ODETS CLIFFORD (1906 1963) Clifford Odets est le dramaturge américain le plus représentatif des années trente. Bien que sa carrière littéraire se soit poursuivie jusqu’à l’époque de la guerre froide, c’est la dépression, à la fois point de départ …   Encyclopédie Universelle

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