| Birth: | Jun. 14, 1919
Chicago
Cook County
Illinois, USA | | Death: | Dec. 18, 1993
London
Greater London, England | 
Actor, Director. The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, he attended Drake University, Iowa and trained as an actor at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. In 1940 he married Charlotte Holland, by whom he had three daughters -Abby, Jessica and the actress Zoe Wanamaker - and saw service during World War II with the US Army in the South Pacific (1943 to 1946). In 1949 he visited the site of the old Globe Theatre on London's South Bank and was dismayed to find that only a plaque on the wall of a brewery commemorated the famous theatre where Shakespeare's plays had been performed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. After being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy witch-hunts following the filming of "Mr. Denning Drives North" in 1950, he set up home in England. In 1957 he was appointed director of the New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool and two years later he joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre company at Stratford-upon-Avon. In 1969 he started actively campaigning to construct a replica of the original Globe theatre in London, and the following year he established the "Globe Playhouse Trust" as an educational charity in order to raise funds to build a replica of the original Elizabethan Globe theatre. But it was not until 1991 that construction began for the New Globe Theatre, and Wanamaker would not live to see its completion. Shortly before his death, from prostate cancer at 74, he was made an Honorary Commander of the British Empire (CBE) - honorary because he was not a British citizen. His many screen and TV credits include "Taras Bulba" (1962), "Death on the Nile" (1978), "Private Benjamin" (1980), "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" (1987), and "Judgment in Berlin" (1988). The New Globe Theatre opened in 1997. Fittingly, Wanamaker's ashes were interred beneath the stage. (bio by: geoffrey gillon)
Search Amazon for Sam Wanamaker | | | Burial:
Southwark Cathedral
*
Southwark
Greater London, England
*Memorial Site [?] |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Sep 09, 2000
Find A Grave Memorial# 12313 |
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