Robert Lewis

Birth : 1909-03-16, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Death : 1997-11-23

History

Robert Lewis (1909 – 1997) was an American actor, director, teacher, author and founder of the Actors Studio in New York in 1947. In addition to his accomplishments on Broadway and in Hollywood, Lewis' greatest and longest lasting contribution to American theater may be the role he played as one of the foremost acting and directing teachers of his day. He was an early proponent of the Stanislavski System of acting technique and a founding member of New York's revolutionary Group Theatre in the 1930s. In the 1970s, he was the Head of the Yale School of Drama Acting and Directing Departments.

Profile

Movies

Broadway's Dreamers: The Legacy of the Group Theatre

Self

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.

Montgomery Clift

Self

A documentary incorporating footage of Montgomery Clift’s most memorable films; interviews with family and friends, and rare archival material stretching back to his childhood. What develops is the story of an intense young boy who yearned for stardom, achieved notable success in such classic films as From Here to Eternity and I Confess, only to be ruined by alcohol addiction and his inability to face his own fears and homosexual desires. Montgomery Clift, as this film portrays him, may not have been a happy man but he never compromised his acting talents for Hollywood.

Anything Goes

Director

Bill Benson and Ted Adams are to appear in a Broadway show together and, while in Paris, each 'discovers' the perfect leading lady for the plum female role. Each promises the prize role to the girl they selected without informing the other until they head back across the Atlantic by liner - with each man having brought his choice along! It becomes a stormy crossing as each man has to tell his 'find' that she might not get the role after all.

Monsieur Verdoux

Maurice Bottello

The film is about an unemployed banker, Henri Verdoux, and his sociopathic methods of attaining income. While being both loyal and competent in his work, Verdoux has been laid-off. To make money for his wife and child, he marries wealthy widows and then murders them. His crime spree eventually works against him when two particular widows break his normal routine.

The Hidden Eye

Stormvig

A perfumed message provides the only clue for a blind detective bent on clearing a man accused of murder.

Ziegfeld Follies

Director

The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.

Ziegfeld Follies

Chinese Gentleman (segment Limehouse Blues) / Telephone Voice (segment Number Please)

The late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld looks down from heaven and ordains a new revue in his grand old style.

The Last Installment

Kovak

In this MGM Crime Does Not Pay series short, a criminal idolizes the life of a famous gangster - unaware that his hero met a tragic end.

Son of Lassie

Sergeant Schmidt

Laddie (Son of Lassie) and his master are trapped in Norway during WW2 - has he inherited his mothers famous courage?

Dragon Seed

Captain Sato

The lives of a small Chinese village are turned Upside down when the Japanese invade it. An heroic young Chinese woman leads her fellow villagers in an uprising against Japanese Invaders.

Paris After Dark

Col. Pirosh

Andre Marbel is the upper-class doctor who is able to continue his practice above suspicion even though he is a leader in the French Resistance. His nurse supports his activities, but her Nazi-brainwashed husband provides the tension.