Distinguished looking, left-leaning actor who came to the screen in 1948 after considerable experience as an actor/director on the Chicago and Broadway stage. During the "Red Scare", Wanamaker appeared in "Give Us This Day" (1949), directed in London by Edward Dmytryk, a blacklisted member of the Hollywood Ten and after appearing in another film in England remained there to avoid any possible repercussions for his political commitments. After appearing in two British productions, however, he found that the tentacles of the Hollywood blacklist reached across the Atlantic, making it impossible for him to continue working in film.Wanamaker subsequently made a name for himself as an actor, director and producer of Shakespeare and contemporary fare on the British stage and founded the Globe Playhouse Trust. He returned to the USA in 1961 and resumed his screen career with notable performances as the Russian agent in "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" (1965), as Moses Weiss in TV's "Holocaust" (1978) and ironically as a lawyer who tries to convince his clients to name names to HUAC in Irwin Winkler's Hollywood blacklist drama, "Guilty By Suspicion" (1991).
A veteran director for stage and TV ("The Defenders", "Columbo", "Hart to Hart"), Wanamaker's occasional directorial outings for film yielded mostly unexceptional results.
Profession(s):
Actor, director, producer
Sometimes Credited As:
Family
daughter:Abby Wanamaker (survived him)
daughter:Jessica Wanamaker (survived him; born c. 1953)
daughter:Zoe Wanamaker (born on May 13, 1949; survived him)
wife:Charlotte Holland (married in 1940 until his death in January 1997)
Companion(s)
Jan Sterling
, Companion
, ```..had relationship with Wanamaker from c. 1960
Special Olivier Award 1984
1984 TV series regular on "Berringers"
1977 Founded (also executive director) Globe Playhouse Trust Ltd. And World Centre for Shakespeare Studies Ltd., UK
1974 Named director, Southwark Summer Festival, UK
1969 Feature directing debut, "The File of the Golden Goose" (Great Britain)
1961 Returned to USA
1953 Co-produced first play (also actor), "The Shrike", London
1952 London stage debut, "Winter Journey"
1951 US Government tried to serve him with subpoena to appear before the HUAC committee; remained in England
1948 Broadway directing debut, "Goodbye My Fancy" (also actor)
1948 Screen acting debut in "My Girl Tisa"
1946 Rose to prominence in stage production of "Joan of Lorraine"
1942 Broadway acting debut, "Cafe Crown"
1936 - 1939 In Chicago worked as actor-director in summer stock, also with the Shakespearean Theatre Group and the Chicago Civic Repertory Theatre
Directed productions for the Jewish Peoples Institute
Worked as radio actor in NY
Served in US Armed Forces
Legally became a British resident
Served as artistic director, New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool, UK