Sam Wanamaker

Early life

Wanamaker was born in Chicago, the son of tailor Maurice Wattenmacker (Manus Watmakher) and Molly (née Bobele). His parents were both Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His father Maurice was from Mykolaiv, in present-day Ukraine. He was the younger of two brothers, the elder being William, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

He trained at the Goodman School of Drama, then at the Art Institute of Chicago (now at DePaul University) and at Drake University. He began working with summer stock theatre companies in Chicago and northern Wisconsin, where he helped build the stage of the Peninsula Players Theatre in 1937.

Career

Wanamaker began his acting career in traveling shows and later worked on Broadway. In 1942, he starred with Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Lorraine and directed Two Gentlemen from Athens the following year.

In 1943, Wanamaker was part of the cast of the play Counterattack at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. During the play, he became enamored of the ideals of communism. He attended Drake University before serving in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946, during World War II. In 1947, he returned to civilian life as an actor and director. In 1948, he starred in and directed the original Broadway production of Goodbye, My Fancy.

In 1951, Wanamaker made a speech welcoming the return of two of the Hollywood Ten. In 1952, at the height of the McCarthy "Red Scare" period, Wanamaker, who was then acting in the UK, learned that despite his distinguished service in the Army during World War II, his years as a communist could lead to his being blacklisted in Hollywood. He consequently decided to remain in England, where he reestablished his career as a stage and film actor, along with becoming a director and producer. He explained:

In 1952, he made his debut as both actor and director in London in Clifford Odets' Winter Journey. The play, which co-starred Michael Redgrave, was considered "sensational" by critics.

In 1957, he was appointed director of the neglected New Shakespeare Theatre in Liverpool. He brought a number of notable productions to the theatre, such as A View from the Bridge, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Rose Tattoo and Bus Stop. It was also transformed into a lively arts centre as a result of including other cultural attractions, such as films, lectures, jazz concerts and art exhibits.

As a result of all his various activities, Wanamaker became London's "favourite American actor and director", noted The Guardian. In the 1960s and 1970s, he produced or directed several works at venues including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and directed the Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations in 1974.

As a director and actor, he worked in films and television, with a role in The Spiral Staircase (1974). Wanamaker eventually returned to Hollywood films including Private Benjamin (1980), Raw Deal (1986), Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), and Baby Boom (1987). He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in the 1978 ABC television miniseries Holocaust.

In 1968, he produced and directed the pilot episode of the Western TV series Lancer; a fictionalized version of this is depicted in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and 2021 novelization with Wanamaker portrayed by Nicholas Hammond in the film.

He also directed stage productions, including the world premiere production of Michael Tippett's opera The Ice Break. In 1980, he directed Giuseppe Verdi's opera Aida starring Luciano Pavarotti at San Francisco Opera (now broadcast version released as DVD). He was also featured as the widowed and ruthless department store owner Simon Berrenger on the short-lived television drama Berrenger's in 1985.

Restoring the Globe theatre

In 1970 Wanamaker's career took a dramatic turn after he was annoyed that while a number of replicas of the Globe theatre existed in the United States, the site of the original in London was marked by only a plaque on a nearby brewery. He then made it his goal to restore an exact replica of the Globe to feature plays and a museum.

It became Wanamaker's "great obsession" to restore Shakespeare's Globe at its original location. He secured financial support from philanthropists and fellow lovers of Shakespeare, such as Samuel H. Scripps, to see that it would be created. Wanamaker then founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust, which raised well over ten million dollars.

Though, as in the late 16th and 17th centuries, the 20th century Royal family were more or less supportive, British officialdom was far less so, since they wanted to develop the site for new high-rise housing and commercial use.

According to Karl Meyer of The New York Times:

On the south bank of the River Thames in London, near where the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe stands today, is a plaque that reads: "In Thanksgiving for Sam Wanamaker, Actor, Director, Producer, 1919–1993, whose vision rebuilt Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Bankside in this parish". There is a blue plaque on the river-side wall of the theatre, and the site's Jacobean indoor theatre, opened in January 2014, is named the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse after him.

For his work in reconstructing the Globe theatre, Wanamaker, in July 1993, was made an honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was also honoured with the Benjamin Franklin Medal by the Royal Society of Arts in recognition of his contribution to theatre.

When multi-Tony Award-winning British actor Mark Rylance accepted his third Tony on stage in New York City during the televised ceremonies on June 8, 2014, he did so with a note of thanks to Wanamaker.

Personal life

In 1940, Wanamaker married Canadian actress Charlotte Holland.

In the 1970s, he reportedly entered into a long-lasting personal relationship with the American actress Jan Sterling. In the 2014 memoir I Said Yes to Everything, Lee Grant claimed that during production of the film Voyage of the Damned (1976), Wanamaker engaged in an affair with British actress Lynne Frederick, who was 21 at the time.

Actress Zoë Wanamaker is his daughter, and film historian Marc Wanamaker is his nephew.

Death

Wanamaker died of lung cancer in London on December 18, 1993, aged 74, before the grand opening of the Globe by Queen Elizabeth II on June 12, 1997. He was survived by three daughters, Abby, Zoë, and Jessica.

Filmography

Actor

• My Girl Tisa (1948) as Mark Denek
• Give Us This Day (1949) as Geremio
• Mr. Denning Drives North (1952) as Chick Eddowes
• The Secret (1955) as Nick Delaney
• The Battle of the Sexes (1959) as Narrator (voice)
• The Criminal (1960) as Mike Carter
• Taras Bulba (1962) as Filipenko
• Man in the Middle (1964) as Maj. Leon Kaufman, a psychiatrist
• The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) as Peters
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) as George Gruber
• Warning Shot (1967) as Frank Sanderman
• The Day the Fish Came Out (1967) as Elias
• Danger Route (1968) as Lucinda
• Arturo UI (1972, TV Movie) as O'Casey
• The Law (1974, TV Movie) as Jules Benson
• Mousey (1974, TV Movie) as Inspector
• The Spiral Staircase (1975) as Lieutenant Fields
• The Sell Out (1976) as Harry Sickles
• Voyage of the Damned (1976) as Carl Rosen
• Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) as Bailey
• The Billion Dollar Bubble (1978) as Stanley Goldblum
• Death on the Nile (1978) as Sterndale Rockford
• Holocaust (1978, TV mini-series) as Moses Weiss
• Contro 4 bandiere (1979) as Ray MacDonald
• Charlie Muffin (1979, TV Movie) as Ruttgers
• Private Benjamin (1980) as Teddy Benjamin
• The Competition (1980) as Andrew Erskine
• Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981) as Bernard Baruch
• Our Family Business (1981, TV Movie) as Ralph
• I Was a Mail Order Bride (1982, TV Movie) as Frank Tosconi
• Heartsounds (1984, TV Movie) as Moe Silverman
• Irreconcilable Differences (1984) as David Kessler
• The Ghost Writer (1984, TV Movie) as E.I. Lonoff
• Berrenger's (1985, TV Series) as Simon Berrenger
• The Aviator (1985) as Bruno Hansen
• Embassy (1985, TV Movie) as Ambassador Arthur Ingram
• Deceptions (1985, TV Movie) as Jim Nolan
• Raw Deal (1986) as Luigi Patrovita
• Sadie and Son (1987, TV Movie) as Marty Goldstein
• Baby Boom (1987) as Fritz Curtis
• Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) as David Warfield
• The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987, TV Movie) as District Attorney
• Baby Boom (1988, TV series based on the 1987 film) as Fritz Curtis
• Judgment in Berlin (1988) as Bernard Hellring
• Tajna manastirske rakije (1988) as Ambassador Morley
• The Shell Seekers (1989, TV Movie) as Richard
• Always Remember I Love You (1990, TV Movie) as Grandfather Mendham
• Running Against Time (1990, TV Movie) as Doctor Koopman
• Guilty by Suspicion (1991) as Felix Graff
• Pure Luck (1991) as Highsmith
• City of Joy (1992) (uncredited)
• Killer Rules (1993, TV Movie) as Gambon
• Bloodlines: Murder in the Family (1993, TV Movie) as Gerald Woodman
• Wild Justice (1994, TV Movie) as Kingston Parker

Television

• Holocaust (1978 TV Mini-Series) as Moses Weiss
• Cameo Theatre in "Manhattan Footstep" (episode # 1.4) June 7, 1950
• Danger Man – as Patrick Laurence in "The Lonely Chair" (episode # 1.8) October 30, 1960
• The Defenders – as Dr. Ralph Ames in "The Hundred Lives of Harry Simms" (episode # 1.7) October 28, 1961
• The Defenders – as James Henry David in "A Book for Burning" (episode # 2.27) March 30, 1963
• Man of the World – as Nicko in "The Bandit" (episode # 2.1) May 11, 1963
• Espionage – as Sprague in "Festival of Pawns" (episode # 1.10) December 11, 1963
• The Outer Limits – as Dr. Simon Holm in "A Feasibility Study" (episode # 1.29) April 13, 1964
• The Defenders – as Edward Banter in "Hollow Triumph" (episode # 3.35) June 20, 1964
• The Defenders – as United States Attorney Brooker in "A Taste of Ashes" (episode # 4.8) November 12, 1964
• The Wild Wild West – as Dr. Arcularis in "The Night of the Howling Light" (episode # 1.14) December 17, 1965
• Gunsmoke – as Asa Longworth in "Parson Comes to Town" (episode # 11.31) April 30, 1966
• Run for Your Life – as Major Joe Rankin in two episodes
• The Baron – as Sefton Folkard in "You Can't Win Them All" (episode # 1.19) February 1, 1967
• Judd for the Defense – as Shelly Gould in "The Gates of Cerberus" (episode # 2.8) November 15, 1968
• Thirty-Minute Theatre in "A Wen" (episode # 1.233) December 27, 1971
• Rafferty – as Hollander in "Rafferty" (Pilot) (episode # 1.1) September 5, 1977
• Return of the Saint – as Domenico in "Dragonseed" (episode # 1.22) February 25, 1979

Director

• The Defenders (TV series) – episode "Eyewitness" (1965)
• Court Martial (TV series) – episode "The Bitter Wind" (1966)
• Hawk (TV series) – episodes "Do Not Mutilate or Spindle", "Game with a Dead End" and "How Close Can You Get?" (1966)
• Cimarron Strip (TV series) – episode "Broken Wing" (1967)
• Custer (TV series) – episode "Sabers in the Sun" (1967)
• Dundee and the Culhane (TV series) – episode "The Jubilee Raid Brief" (1967)
• Coronet Blue (TV series) – episodes "The Rebels", "Man Running", "Saturday" and "The Presence of Evil" (1967)
• Lancer (TV series) – episode "The High Riders" (1968)
• Premiere (TV series) – episode "Lassiter" (1968)
• The Champions (TV series) – episode "To Trap A Rat" (1968)
• The File of the Golden Goose (1969)
• The Executioner (1970)
• Catlow (1971)
• Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
• Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case (1977) (TV)
• David Cassidy - Man Undercover (TV series) – episode "Cage of Steel" (1978)
• Hart to Hart (TV series) – episode "Death in the Slow Lane" (1979)
• Return of the Saint (TV series) – episode "Vicious Circle" (1979)
• Mrs. Columbo aka Kate Loves a Mystery (TV series) – episodes "A Puzzle for Prophets" and "Falling Star" (1979)
• The Killing of Randy Webster (1981) (TV)
• Columbo: Grand Deceptions (1989) (TV)

Notes

References

References

1. "Who do you think you are – Zoë Wanamaker" BBC/2008.
2. (December 20, 1993). "Obituaries: Sam Wanamaker". The Daily Telegraph.
3. [http://www.brama.com/news/press/2004/07/040716leliw_zwanamaker.html "'Madam Hooch' rides her broomstick in from Odessa: Actress Zoë Wanamaker offers a glimpse into her family history"] {{webarchive. link. (3 March 2016)
4. "Actor Sam Wanamaker, 74; rebuilt Globe Theater", ''Chicago Tribune'', December 19, 1993
5. Hobe. (November 24, 1948). "Legitimate: Play on Broadway – Gooodbye My Fancy". Variety.
6. Michael Buchanan. (August 31, 2009). "Sam Wanamaker 'monitored by MI5'". BBC News.
7. "The McCarthy Era Kept Him Away", ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', January 23, 1985
8. "Threepenny Opera".
9. Inlay notes to recording on Virgin Classics VC 7 91448-2.
10. "Hard-headed Romantic", ''The Guardian'', London, December 20, 1993
11. "Sam Wanamaker's Great Obsession", by Karl E. Meyer, ''The New York Times'', December 29, 1996.
12. Louise Jury. (February 24, 2012). "Globe theatre appeal … stage two". Evening Standard.
13. Moore, Rowan. (January 12, 2014). "Sam Wanamaker Playhouse – review". The Observer.
14. Grant, Lee. (2014). "I said yes to everything : a memoir". Plume.
15. "Marc Wanamaker". Internet Movie Database.
16. (2024-01-05). "SAM WANAMAKER, ACTOR AND DIRECTOR, DIES AT 74". Washington Post.
17. Obituary for Sam Wanamaker, ''The New York Times'', December 19, 1993.
18. "Shakespeare's Globe :: Sam Wanamaker".