STRASBERG, LEE

STRASBERG, LEE (1901–1982), U.S. theatrical director and teacher. Born in Budanov (then Austria-Hungary), his family moved in 1909 to New York, where Strasberg became entranced with the theater, largely through the influence of the Chrystie Street Settlement House. In 1923, after seeing a performance of the Moscow Art Theater then touring under the direction of Stanislavsky, he enrolled in the American Laboratory Theater, which followed Stanislavsky's realistic principles. He began his professional career in 1924 with the Theater Guild, first as assistant stage manager and then as an actor. In 1931 Strasberg, Cheryl Crawford, and Harold Clurman founded the Group Theater, which came to exercise a profound influence on the American stage. He directed several plays, of which Men in White (1933) won a Pulitzer Prize, but resigned in 1937 after a policy dispute. In 1947, he joined the Actors Studio and became its artistic director in 1948. The Studio was largely shaped by him and became famous for its "Method" approach to acting. Its pupils won acclaim for an intense personal style. Strasberg has said, "Acting is to live on a stage. This means an actor must be able to react to an imaginary stimulus just as hard as he would to a real stimulus." Strasberg maintained close ties with Jewish theater and directed several productions for habimah , the National Theater of Israel. He made his film debut at age 73, portraying a Jewish mobster in The Godfather, Part II (1974), which garnered him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Subsequent films include The Cassandra Crossing (1976); the TV movie The Last Tenant (1976); And Justice for All (1979); Boardwalk (1979); Going in Style (1979); and the TV movie Skokie (1981). His book A Dream of Passion: The Development of the Method was published in 1987. His daughter, SUSAN (1938–1999), a film and stage actress, was best known for her performance on Broadway in the title role of The Diary of Anne Frank (1955), which earned her a Tony nomination for Best Actress. A close friend of Marilyn Monroe's, she wrote Marilyn and Me (1992), as well as Bittersweet (1990). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Current Biography Yearbook, 1960 (1961), 406–8; Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo (1962), S.V., incl. bibl. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Adams, Lee Strasberg: The Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio (1980); L. Hull, Strasberg's Method as Taught by Lorrie Hull (1985); J. Strasberg, Accidentally on Purpose (2000). (Raphael Rothstein / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)