Lee Strasberg: Actor, Director And Theater Practitioner

Lee Strasberg was an actor, director, and theater practitioner. He was born November 17, 1901 in what is now known as modern day Ukraine, but what was then called Austrian Poland. He immigrated to the United States at the age of seven. The beginning of Strasberg’s professional career in the field of acting was when he joined the Theater Guild in his early twenties. This led to the formation of the Group Theatre by Strasberg, himself, and two others—Harold Clurman and Cheryl Crawford. Under the Group Theatre’s management, many aspiring actors and actresses were born including those like Lee J. Cobb and Elia Kazan, along with many, many more. Also, during this time in his life he married a woman named Nora Z. Krecaun in the year of 1926 until

It was here that Strasberg further developed Konstantin Stanislavsky’s idea the “System” into a technique known as “method acting.” In this he described that to do this his students were to “call upon their own emotions and experiences and incorporate them into their performances.” Strasberg once said, “The real secret to method acting—which is as old as the theater itself—is creating

Some actors think behaving casually is the same thing.” In the 50s Strasberg became the artistic director of the Actors Studio. He worked with James Dean, Julie Harris, and a number of other talents. In 1966, his wife died. In 1968, he married Anna Mizrahi and was with her until he died. He had two children with her—Adam and David. In 1969, he founded the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute. Lee Strasberg went back to acting in the seventies. He was in the Godfather: Part II and this was a successful production in which he was able to be a part of. A few years after The Godfather, he was casted into The Cassandra Crossing. Just years before his death, he was the lead in the movie Going with Style. Early in the year of 1982, Lee Strasberg died of a heart attack, February 17. He was outlived by his third wife and all four of his children. At a service at New York’s Shubert Theater, Strasberg was mourned and remembered by many. Among the multitudes included film stars like Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Quinn, Shelley Winters, and others. They all came to respect the life of such an influential person in the world of