Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 â€" August 14, 1963) was an American
playwright, screenwriter, and director. In the mid-1930s he was widely
seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright
Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdraw from Broadway's
commercial pressures and increasing critical backlash. From January
1935 Odets' socially relevant dramas were extremely influential,
particularly for the remainder of the Great Depression. His works
inspired the next several generations of playwrights, including Arthur
Miller, Paddy Chayefsky, Neil Simon, and David Mamet. After the
production of his play Clash by Night in the 1941â€"'42 season, Odets
focused his energies primarily on film projects, remaining in
Hollywood for the next seven years. He returned to New York in 1948
for five and a half years, during which time he produced three more
Broadway plays, only one of which was a success. His prominence was
eventually eclipsed by Miller, Tennessee Williams, and in the early-
to mid-1950s, by William Inge.Odets was born in Philadelphia to Louis
J. Odets (born Leib Gorodetsky) and Pearl Geisinger, Russian- and
Romanian-Jewish immigrants, and was raised in Philadelphia and the
Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high school after two years to
become an actor and a writer.Odets pursued acting with great passion
and ingenuity. At the age of 19 he struck out on his own, billing
himself as "The Rover Reciter." Under this moniker he participated in
talent contests and procured bookings as a radio elocutionist. He
appeared in several plays with Harry Kemp's Poet's Theatre on the
Lower East Side. Odets was among America's first real disc jockeys at
about this time, at radio station WBNY and others in Manhattan, where
he would play records and ad lib commentary. He also functioned as a
drama critic, allowing him free entry to Broadway and downtown shows.
In this capacity he saw the 1926 Broadway production of Seán
O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock. O'Casey's work would prove to be a
powerful influence on Odets as a playwright.In the early 1920s, Odets
spent four summers as a dramatics counselor at Jewish camps in the
Catskills and the Poconos. He toured extensively with stock companies,
in particular Philadelphia's popular Mae Desmond Company, playing a
large variety of character roles at their theater in Chester,
Pennsylvania. His first Broadway break came in 1929 when he was cast
in two small roles and as understudy to the young Spencer Tracy in
Conflict by Warren F. Lawrence. Odets landed his first job with the
prestigious Theatre Guild in the fall of 1929 as an extra. He acted in
small roles in a number of Theatre Guild productions between 1929 and
1931. It was at the Guild that he befriended the casting director,
Cheryl Crawford. Crawford suggested that Harold Clurman, then a play
reader for the Guild, invite Odets to a meeting to discuss new theater
concepts they were developing with Lee Strasberg. Though initially
bewildered by the concept of acting as an art, Odets was nonetheless
mesmerized by Clurman's talks and became the last actor chosen for the
Group Theatre's first summer of rehearsals in June 1931 at Brookfield
Center in Connecticut, thus becoming a founding member of the company.
playwright, screenwriter, and director. In the mid-1930s he was widely
seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright
Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdraw from Broadway's
commercial pressures and increasing critical backlash. From January
1935 Odets' socially relevant dramas were extremely influential,
particularly for the remainder of the Great Depression. His works
inspired the next several generations of playwrights, including Arthur
Miller, Paddy Chayefsky, Neil Simon, and David Mamet. After the
production of his play Clash by Night in the 1941â€"'42 season, Odets
focused his energies primarily on film projects, remaining in
Hollywood for the next seven years. He returned to New York in 1948
for five and a half years, during which time he produced three more
Broadway plays, only one of which was a success. His prominence was
eventually eclipsed by Miller, Tennessee Williams, and in the early-
to mid-1950s, by William Inge.Odets was born in Philadelphia to Louis
J. Odets (born Leib Gorodetsky) and Pearl Geisinger, Russian- and
Romanian-Jewish immigrants, and was raised in Philadelphia and the
Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high school after two years to
become an actor and a writer.Odets pursued acting with great passion
and ingenuity. At the age of 19 he struck out on his own, billing
himself as "The Rover Reciter." Under this moniker he participated in
talent contests and procured bookings as a radio elocutionist. He
appeared in several plays with Harry Kemp's Poet's Theatre on the
Lower East Side. Odets was among America's first real disc jockeys at
about this time, at radio station WBNY and others in Manhattan, where
he would play records and ad lib commentary. He also functioned as a
drama critic, allowing him free entry to Broadway and downtown shows.
In this capacity he saw the 1926 Broadway production of Seán
O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock. O'Casey's work would prove to be a
powerful influence on Odets as a playwright.In the early 1920s, Odets
spent four summers as a dramatics counselor at Jewish camps in the
Catskills and the Poconos. He toured extensively with stock companies,
in particular Philadelphia's popular Mae Desmond Company, playing a
large variety of character roles at their theater in Chester,
Pennsylvania. His first Broadway break came in 1929 when he was cast
in two small roles and as understudy to the young Spencer Tracy in
Conflict by Warren F. Lawrence. Odets landed his first job with the
prestigious Theatre Guild in the fall of 1929 as an extra. He acted in
small roles in a number of Theatre Guild productions between 1929 and
1931. It was at the Guild that he befriended the casting director,
Cheryl Crawford. Crawford suggested that Harold Clurman, then a play
reader for the Guild, invite Odets to a meeting to discuss new theater
concepts they were developing with Lee Strasberg. Though initially
bewildered by the concept of acting as an art, Odets was nonetheless
mesmerized by Clurman's talks and became the last actor chosen for the
Group Theatre's first summer of rehearsals in June 1931 at Brookfield
Center in Connecticut, thus becoming a founding member of the company.
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