Samuel Wanamaker, CBE (born Wattenmacker; June 14, 1919 – December 18, 1993) was an American actor and director who moved to the United Kingdom after becoming fearful of being blacklisted in Hollywood due to his communist views. He is credited as the person most responsible for saving The Rose Theatre, which led to 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.
Early life
Wanamaker was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of tailor Maurice Wattenmacker (Manus Watmakher)[1] and Molly (née Bobele). His parents were Russians of Jewish descent.[2] He was the younger of two brothers, the elder being William, long-term cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Wanamaker began his acting career in traveling shows and later worked on Broadway. In 1942 he starred with Ingrid Bergman in the play Joan of Lorraine and directed Two Gentlemen from Athens the following year.[3]
In 1943, Wanamaker was part of the cast of the play Counterattack at the National Theatre, Washington, D.C. During the play, he became enamored of the ideals of communism. He attended Drake University prior to serving in the U.S. Army between 1943 and 1946, during the Second World War. 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.[4]
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.[a] 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.[6] He explained:
In 1950 I went to England to do a play, and around that time the whole McCarthy witch-hunting era had taken hold in Hollywood—so I just stayed in Britain. I knew that because I had worked with actors who had problems in Hollywood, I might have difficulties.[7]
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.[6]
He also directed stage productions, including the world premiere production of Michael Tippett's opera The Ice Break.[10] 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 very ruthless department store owner Simon Berrenger on the short-lived television drama Berrenger's in 1985.
Restoring the Globe Theatre
He was a hard-headed romantic—and a genuinely courteous man—driven by a passion for Shakespeare. The Globe will be his lasting monument.
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.[6]
It became Wanamaker's "great obsession" to restore Shakespeare's Globe Theatre 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.[6] Wanamaker then founded the Shakespeare Globe Trust, which raised well over ten million dollars.[6]
London's restored Globe Theatre in 2014
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.[6]English Heritage, which controlled the site, refused to give Wanamaker the precise dimensions of the original Globe.[11][12]
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.[11]
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".[11] There is a blue plaque on the river-side wall of the theatre,[13] and the site's Jacobean indoor theatre, opened in January 2014, is named the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse after him.[14]
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 her 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 twenty-one at the time.[15]
Wanamaker died of prostate cancer in London on December 18, 1993, aged 74,[17] prior to the grand opening of the Globe by Queen Elizabeth II on June 12, 1997.[18] He was survived by three daughters, Abby, Zoë, and Jessica.
^The BBC documentary Who Do You Think You Are? broadcast on February 24, 2009, revealed that the FBI had kept a substantial investigation file for him, including incriminating witness statements, and that the House Un-American Activities Committee had intended to subpoena him as a witness. His activities were also reportedly monitored by MI5.[5]
References
^"Who do you think you are – Zoë Wanamaker" BBC/2008.
^"Obituaries: Sam Wanamaker". The Daily Telegraph. December 20, 1993. p. 21. Retrieved May 26, 2023 – via Newspapers.com. The son of Russian Jews who had fled the 1905 pogrom and found work in the Chicago rag trade, he was born Sam Watenmaker on June 14 1919...
^ ab"Actor Sam Wanamaker, 74; rebuilt Globe Theater", Chicago Tribune, December 19, 1993
^Hobe (November 24, 1948). "Legitimate: Play on Broadway – Gooodbye My Fancy". Variety. 172 (12): 50.
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