Sam Wanamaker

Samuel Wanamaker ( Wattenmacker; June 14, 1919 – December 18, 1993) was an American actor and director, whose career on stage and in film and television spanned five decades. He began his career on Broadway, but spent much of his professional life in the United Kingdom, where he emigrated after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s due to his communist views.

Wanamaker became extensively involved in British theater, while continuing film and television work, eventually returning to some Hollywood productions while continuing to live in the UK. There, he is also credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, where he is commemorated in the name of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the site's second theatre. He was awarded an honorary CBE for his work.

Wanamaker was the father of actress Zoë Wanamaker, and the uncle of film historian Marc 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, who became 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.

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 1956, he directed the British premiere of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's musical play The Threepenny Opera (revived in New York in 1954 in a translation by Marc Blitzstein.)

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. 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. In September that year he also produced the first opera to be mounted in the new Sydney Opera House - War and Peace by Prokofiev.

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 fictional version of this is depicted in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and the 2021 novel of the same name. Wanamaker is 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. 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 only by a plaque on a nearby brewery. He made it his goal to create an exact replica of the Globe to feature plays and a museum. This inspired the creation of Shakespeare's Globe Centres around the world, many of which Wanamaker participated in.

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. They wanted to develop the site for new high-rise housing and commercial use.

According to Karl Meyer of The New York Times:

The Shakespeare project helped Mr. Wanamaker keep his sanity and dignity intact. On his first visit to London in 1949, he had sought traces of the original theatre and was astonished to find only a blackened plaque on an unused brewery. He found this neglect inexplicable, and in 1970 launched the Shakespeare Globe Trust, later obtaining the building site and necessary permissions despite a hostile local council. He siphoned his earnings as actor and director into the project, undismayed by the scepticism of his British colleagues. 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).

Actress Zoë Wanamaker (b. 1949) is his daughter, and film historian Marc Wanamaker (b. 1947) 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

Film

Actor

Director

Television

Actor

Director