1961 - Theater, Film

Theater, Film

Theater: The American Dream by Edward Albee 1/24 at New York's off-Broadway York Theater, with Jane Hoffman, John C. Becher, Sudie Bond, Donald Nation and The Death of Bessie Smith by Albee 1/24 at the York Theater, with Doris Roberts, Harold Scott, John McCarry, John C. Becher, 370 perfs.; The Devils by English playwright John (Robert) Whiting, 43, 2/20 at London's Royal Aldwych Theatre, with Ian Holm, (Enid) Diana (Elizabeth) Rigg, 22, Max Adrian, Dorothy Tutin. Commissioned by director Peter Hall and adapted from Aldous Huxley's novel The Devils of Loudon, it is based on the martyrdom of Father Urbain Grandier in 1634 and draws condemnation from Roman Catholics for its depiction of sexually-obsessed nuns; Mary, Mary by Scranton, Pa.-born playwright Jean Kerr, 37, 3/8 at New York's Helen Hayes Theater, with Barbara Bel Geddes, Barry Nelson, 1,572 perfs.; A Far Country 4/4 at New York's Music Box Theater, with Steven Hill (as Sigmund Freud), Kim Stanley, Sam Wanamaker, Lili Darvas, Salome Jens, Patrick O'Neal, scenic design by Donald Oenslager, 271 perfs.; Luther by John Osborne 6/26 at Nottingham's Theatre Royal; August for the People by novelist-critic Nigel Dennis 9/5 at Britain's Malverne Festival, with Rex Harrison; Happy Days by Samuel Beckett 9/17 at New York's off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theater; Purlie Victorious by Georgia-born playwright Ossie Davis, 44, 9/28 at New York's Cort Theater, with Davis as Purlie Victorious Judson, Ruby Dee, Howard Da Silva, Godfrey Cambridge, Alan Alda, 261 perfs.; Write Me a Murder by Frederick Knott 10/28 at New York's Belasco Theater, with Denholm Elliott, Kim Hunter, 196 perfs.; Gideon by Paddy Chayefsky 11/9 at New York's Plymouth Theater, with Fredric March, George Segal, 236 perfs.; Andorra by Max Frisch 11/2 at Zürich's Schauspielhaus; The Detour (Der Abstecher) by German playwright Martin Walser, 34, 11/28 at Munich's Werkramm Theater der Kammerspiele; The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams 12/28 at New York's Royale Theater, with Patrick O'Neal, Bette Davis, Margaret Leighton, Alan Webb, 316 perfs.

The Royal Shakespeare Company is created by a renaming of Stratford-upon-Avon's 86-year-old Shakespeare Memorial Company, which was granted a royal charter in 1925 after 46 years of staging an annual festival of Shakespeare's plays. Suffolk-born director and theatrical manager Peter Hall, 30, became managing director of the company last year, divided it into Stratford and London units, oversaw the opening of its Aldwych Theatre in London, and will continue as managing director until 1968 with help from his French-born codirector Michel Saint-Denis, 63, who will continue in his post until 1966.

Actor Harry Bannister dies at New York February 26 at age 71; playwright George S. Kaufman suffers a stroke and dies at New York June 2 at age 71; vaudeville veteran Frank Fay at Santa Monica September 25 at age 63; actor Donald Cook of a heart attack at age 60 in his New Haven, Conn., hotel October 1; producer Guthrie McClintic of cancer at Sneeden's Landing, N.Y., October 29 at age 68, survived by his wife, Katherine Cornell; Ruth Chatterton dies at Norwalk, Conn., November 24 at age 67; playwright Moss Hart of a heart attack at Palm Springs, Calif., December 20 at age 57.

Television: The Saint on Britain's ITV with Roger Moore as Simon Templar in a series of hour-long shows based on stories by Leslie Charteris (185 episodes, to 1969); University Challenge on Britain's Grenada TV (a quiz show; to 1987; quiz shows on U.S. television were discredited by the scandals of the 1950s and will not be revived until 1999, but the genre will remain popular on TV in other countries); The Defenders 9/16 on CBS with E. G. Marshall, Robert Reed (to 5/13/1965; based on a 1957 Studio One play by Reginald Rose, the show's guest stars will include Ilka Chase, Mary Fickett, Joan Hackett, Pat Hingle, Jack Klugman, Sam Wanamaker, and Fritz Weaver and it will tackle such controversial subjects as abortion and McCarthy era blacklisting; Car 54, Where Are You? 9/17 on NBC with Fred Gwynne, Joe E. Ross, Al Lewis, Nipsey Russell, Charlotte Rae in a comedy series created by Nat Hiken (to 9/8/1963, 60 episodes); Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color 9/24 on NBC with a new cartoon character, Professor Ludwig von Drake; Dr. Kildare 9/27 on NBC with Richard Chamberlain in the role created on radio by Lew Ayres 10 years ago (to 9/9/65); Hazel 9/28 on NBC with Shirley Booth, Don DeFore (to 9/5/1966); Mister Ed 10/1 on CBS with Alan Young, Connie Hines, and the voice of Allan "Rocky" Lane as the talking horse (to 9/4/1966); The Dick Van Dyke Show 10/3 on CBS with stage veteran Van Dyke, 32, Mary Tyler Moore, 23, Larry Mathews, Morey Amsterdam, now 46, in a sitcom created by comedian-writer Carl Reiner (to 9/7/1966).

Films: Robert Rossen's The Hustler with comedian Jackie Gleason (as "Minnesota Fats"), Paul Newman, Piper Laurie, Virginia-born actor George C. (Campbell), Scott, 33; Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg with Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Viennese actor Maximilian Schell, 30, Montgomery Clift; François Truffaut's Jules and Jim with Jeanne Moreau, Viennese actor Oskar Werner, 38, Henri Serre; Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three with James Cagney, Arlene Francis, Horst Buchholz; Daniel Petrie's Raisin in the Sun with Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Louis Gossett; Vittorio De Sica's Two Women with Sophia Loren (Sophia Scicoloni), 26, Eleanora Brown, Jean-Paul Belmondo. Also: Blake Edwards's Breakfast at Tiffany's with Audrey Hepburn, Detroit-born actor George Peppard, 32, Martin Balsam, Patricia Neal, Mickey Rooney; Shirley Clarke's The Connection with William Redfield; J. Lee Thompson's The Guns of Navarone with Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn; Jack Clayton's The Innocents with Deborah Kerr, Michael Redgrave, Martin Stephens, Pamela Franklin in a film version of the 1898 Henry James short story "The Turn of the Screw"; Nicholas Ray's King of Kings with Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McKenna; Delbert Mann's Lover Come Back with Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Edie Adams; John Huston's The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift, Clark Gable; Shohei Imamura's Pigs and Battleships with Hiroyuki Nagato; Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum with Vincent Price; George Seaton's The Pleasure of His Company with Fred Astaire, Lili Palmer, Debbie Reynolds; Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass with Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty; Peter Glenville's Summer and Smoke with Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey; Tony Richardson's A Taste of Honey with Rita Tushingham, 19, Robert Stephens; Basil Dearden's Victim with Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Sims; Luis Buñuel's Viridiana with Silvia Pinal, Fernando Rey (Fernando Casado Arambillet Veiga), 43; Bryan Forbes's Whistle Down the Wind with Hayley Mills, 15, Alan Bates, 27.

Actor Barry Fitzgerald dies of cancer at his native Dublin January 4 at age 72; silent film star Nita Naldi at her native New York February 17 at age 63; director Roy del Ruth of a heart attack at Hollywood April 27 at age 66; Gary Cooper of cancer at Hollywood May 13 at age 60; Jeff Chandler of blood poisoning following surgery for a slipped disc at Culver City June 17 at age 42; Gail Russell is found dead amidst empty vodka bottles in her Los Angeles apartment August 26 at age 36; Charles Coburn dies of a heart attack at New York August 30 at age 84; Leo Carillo of cancer at Santa Monica September 10 at age 81; motion picture pioneer Joseph M. Schenck of heart disease at his Beverly Hills home October 20 at age 83; Marion Davies of cancer at Los Angeles September 22 at age 64, having long since declined into alcoholism but leaving an estate worth upwards of $20 million, most of it invested in real estate; Chico Marx dies of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home October 11 at age 70; director Zoltan Korda at Beverly Hills October 13 at age 66.