George Francis Abbott (June 25, 1887January 31, 1995) was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades. He received numerous honors including six Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1982, the National Medal of Arts in 1990, and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Starting as an actor he later became known for producing numerous Broadway productions such as Pal Joey (1940), On the Town (1944), Call Me Madam (1950), Wonderful Town (1953), The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955, and again in 1994), New Girl in Town (1957), Once Upon a Mattress (1959), Fiorello! (book, 1959), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), and Broadway (1987).
Abbott also acted in numerous films in the 1920s and 1930s. He received an Academy Award for Best Writing nomination for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). He later directed the movie musical adaptations of The Pajama Game (1957) and Damn Yankees (1958).
Early years
Abbott was born in Forestville, New York, to George Burwell Abbott (May 1858 Erie County, New York – February 4, 1942 Hamburg, New York) and Hannah May McLaury (1869 – June 20, 1940 Hamburg, New York). He later moved to the city of Salamanca, which twice elected his father mayor. In 1898, his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he attended Kearney Military Academy. Within a few years, his family returned to New York, and he graduated from Hamburg High School in 1907. where he wrote his first play, Perfectly Harmless, for the University Dramatic Club. Abbott then attended Harvard University, to take a course in playwriting from George Pierce Baker. He then worked for a year as
"author, gofer, and actor" at the Bijou Theatre in Boston, where his play The Man in the Manhole won a contest. While acting in several plays in New York City, he began to write; his first successful play was The Fall Guy (1925). His first hit was Broadway, written and directed in partnership with Philip Dunning, whose play Abbott "rejiggered". It opened on September 16, 1926, at the Broadhurst Theatre and ran for 603 performances. Other successes followed, and it was a rare year that did not have an Abbott production on Broadway.
He also worked in Hollywood as a film writer and director He introduced the "fast-paced, tightly integrated style that influenced" performers and especially directors such as Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse and Hal Prince.
Autobiography
In 1963, he published his autobiography, Mister Abbott. He had a long romance with actress Maureen Stapleton His third wife was Joy Valderrama. They were married from 1983 until his death in 1995.
He was cremated at Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Miami and the ashes were taken by his wife.
Family
In addition to his wife, who died in 2020 at 88, Abbott was survived by a sister, Isabel Juergens, who died a year later at the age of 102; two granddaughters, Amy Clark Davidson and Susan Clark Hansley; a grandson, George Clark, and six great-grandchildren. New York City's George Abbott Way, the section of West 45th Street northwest of Times Square, is also named after him.
He received New York City's Handel Medallion in 1976, honorary doctorates from the Universities of Rochester and Miami, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 1982. and the American Theatre Hall of Fame. In 1990, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Work
Stage
Source: Playbill
- 1913: The Misleading Lady (actor)
- 1915: The Yeomen of the Guard (actor)
- 1918: Daddies (actor)
- 1920: The Broken Wing (actor)
- 1923: Zander the Great (actor)
- 1924: Hell-Bent Fer Heaven (actor)
- 1925: The Fall Guy (playwright)
- 1926: Love 'em and Leave 'em (playwright, director)
- 1926: Chicago (director)
- 1926: Broadway (playwright, director)
- 1928: Gentlemen of the Press (director)
- 1932: Lilly Turner (playwright, director, producer)
- 1932: Twentieth Century (director, producer)
- 1934: Small Miracle (director)
- 1935: Three Men on a Horse (playwright, director)
- 1935: Jumbo (director)
- 1936: On Your Toes (book)
- 1937: Room Service (director, producer)
- 1937: Brown Sugar (director, producer)
- 1938: The Boys from Syracuse (book, director, producer)
- 1939: Too Many Girls (director, producer)
- 1939: The Primrose Path (director, producer)
- 1940: Pal Joey (director, producer)
- 1940: The Unconquered (producer, director)
- 1941: Best Foot Forward (producer, director)
- 1943: Kiss and Tell (play) (producer, director)
- 1944: A Highland Fling (play) (producer, director)
- 1944: On the Town (director)
- 1945: Billion Dollar Baby (musical) (director)
- 1947: High Button Shoes (director)
- 1948: Where's Charley? (book, director)
- 1949: Mrs. Gibbons' Boys (producer, director)
- 1950: Call Me Madam (director)
- 1951: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (book, director, producer)
- 1953: Wonderful Town (director) Me and Juliet (director)
- 1954: The Pajama Game (book, director)
- 1955: Damn Yankees (book, director)
- 1957: New Girl in Town (book, director)
- 1959: Once Upon a Mattress (director)
- 1959: Fiorello! (book, director)
- 1960: Tenderloin (book, director)
- 1961: Take Her, She's Mine (director)
- 1962: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (director)
- 1962: Never Too Late (director)
- 1964: Fade Out – Fade In (director)
- 1965: Flora the Red Menace (book, director)
- 1965: Anya (book, director)
- 1967: How Now, Dow Jones (director)
- 1968: The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N (director)
- 1969: The Fig Leaves Are Falling (director)
- 1970: Norman, Is That You? (director)
- 1976: Music Is (book, director)
- 1987: Broadway (revival, book, director)
- 1994: Damn Yankees (revival, book, consultant, script revisions)
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
! Year !! Title !! Credit
|-
| 1918 ||The Imposter ||Writer, actor (Lem)
|-
| 1926 ||Love 'Em and Leave 'Em ||Writer
|-
| 1927 ||Hills of Peril || Playwright, A Holy Terror
|-
| 1928 ||Four Walls || Playwright, writer
|-
| 1929 ||Coquette ||Playwright
|-
| 1929 ||The Carnival Man ||Director
|-
| 1929 ||Broadway ||Playwright, writer
|-
| 1929 ||The Bishop's Candlesticks ||Director
|-
| 1929 ||Why Bring That Up? ||Director, writer
|-
| 1929 ||The Saturday Night Kid ||Playwright, Love 'Em and Leave 'Em
|-
| 1929 ||Night Parade ||Playwright, Ringside
|-
| 1929 ||Half Way to Heaven ||Director, writer
|-
| 1930 ||El Dios del mar ||Writer
|-
| 1930 ||All Quiet on the Western Front ||Writer
|-
| 1930 ||The Fall Guy ||Playwright
|-
| 1930 ||Manslaughter ||Director, writer
|-
| 1930 ||The Sea God ||Director, writer
|-
| 1931 ||The Leap into the Void ||Writer
|-
| 1931 ||Stolen Heaven ||Director; writer
|-
| 1931 || The Incorrigible||Playwright, Manslaughter
|-
| 1931 ||Sombras del circo ||Playwright, Halfway to Heaven
|-
| 1931 ||À mi-chemin du ciel ||Playwright, Halfway to Heaven
|-
| 1931 ||Secrets of a Secretary ||Director, writer
|-
| 1931 ||My Sin ||Director; writer
|-
| 1931 ||The Cheat ||Director
|-
| 1932 ||Halvvägs till himlen ||Writer
|-
| 1932 ||Those We Love ||Playwright
|-
| 1933 ||Lilly Turner ||Playwright
|-
| 1934 ||Heat Lightning ||Playwright
|-
| 1934 ||Straight Is the Way ||Playwright, Four Walls
|-
| 1936 ||Three Men on a Horse ||Playwright
|-
| 1938 ||Broadway ||Writer
|-
| 1939 ||On Your Toes ||Playwright
|-
| 1940 ||Too Many Girls ||Director
|-
| 1940 ||The Boys from Syracuse ||Playwright, director
|-
| 1941 ||Highway West ||Playwright, Heat Lightning
|-
| 1942 ||Broadway ||Playwright
|-
| 1947 ||Beat the Band ||Playwright
|-
| 1957 || The Pajama Game ||Writer, director, producer
- 1960 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – Fiorello!
- 1960 Tony Award for Best Musical – Fiorello!
- 1963 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
- 1976 Special Tony Award: The Lawrence Langer award
- 1983 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical – On Your Toes
- 1987 Special Tony Award on the occasion of his 100th birthday
;Nominations
- 1930 Academy Award for Best Achievement in Writing – All Quiet on the Western Front