Clifford Odets (1906–1963)
Author of Waiting for Lefty and Other Plays
About the Author
With Lillian Hellman, Odets remains one of the foremost U.S. dramatists of the 1930s. Born in Philadelphia, he became an actor about 1923 and joined the Group Theatre upon its founding in 1930. From then until its collapse in 1940, the Group Theatre produced seven plays by Odets, all of which show more reflect the Depression era in which they were written. His first play, Waiting for Lefty (1935), an agitprop play about strikers, was an enormous success. Most of his other plays of the 1930s, most notably Awake and Sing (1935) and Paradise Lost (1935), concern the economic and psychological plight of poor New York City Jewish families and heighten middle-class Jewish speech into a kind of poetry. After the collapse of the Group Theatre, Odets produced only four more plays. Odets was criticized, however, for betraying his leftist sympathies when he named names before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Clifford Odets
Three Plays By Clifford Odets: Awake And Sing, Waiting For Lefty, Till The Day I Die (2007) 15 copies
The Time Is Ripe: The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets : With an Introduction by William Gibson (1988) 15 copies
Romare Bearden : fractured tales, intimate collages : September 8 - October 28, 2006 (2006) 9 copies
Clifford Odets: Paradise Lost, paintings on paper from the 1940s and 1950s [May 9 - August 2, 2002] (2002) 4 copies
Till the Day I Die 4 copies
Desperta e Canta 2 copies
Famous Plays of 1938-1939 (Famous Plays of 1938-1939) — Author — 2 copies
Three Plays By Clifford Odets Including; Awake & Sing; Waiting for Left; Till the Day I Die 3 1 copy
Ragazzo d'oro 1 copy
Associated Works
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Contributor — 68 copies, 1 review
Years of Protest: A Collection of American Writings of the 1930's (1967) — Contributor — 40 copies, 1 review
Twenty One-Act Plays: An Anthology for Amateur Performing Groups (1978) — Contributor — 37 copies, 1 review
Cary Grant: The Movie Collection: Mr. Lucky [and] None but the Lonely Heart — Director — 4 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Odets, Clifford
- Birthdate
- 1906-07-18
- Date of death
- 1963-08-18
- Burial location
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Place of death
- Hollywood, California, USA
- Places of residence
- Bronx, New York, USA
- Occupations
- playwright
stage director
screenwriter
Members
Reviews
The Country Girl by George Seaton
2024 movie #45. 1954. A frumpy (Grace Kelly?!) is married to a washed up alcoholic stage actor (Crosby) who is fighting to hang on to his last chance star acting job. Kelly won her only Oscar for this film. Beating out sure favorite Judy Garland (A Star is Born).
tinerant Cockney (Grant) settles down to help his Ma (Barrymore, won Best Supporting Actress Oscar) run her 2nd hand store in depression era London. A sad story with some good acting. Grant's first Oscar nomination.
It's a strange play for Odets — not much more than a dramatization of the story of Noah from within the context of a Jewish family. It's his last play, after Odets named names before HUAC. Gone is the playwright of social injustice; in its place an affable sitcom writer whose most daring message is that henceforth humans will be the destroyers of the world, not God. The Bible could have told you so..
I worked on the National Actors Theatre production in 1994, with Martin Charnin, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson and Josh Mostel, where a fist fight broke out onstage during rehearsals and the stagehands had to break it up. Perhaps because the company knew that they were incapable of making anything really exciting happen during the course of the play itself?… (more)
I worked on the National Actors Theatre production in 1994, with Martin Charnin, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson and Josh Mostel, where a fist fight broke out onstage during rehearsals and the stagehands had to break it up. Perhaps because the company knew that they were incapable of making anything really exciting happen during the course of the play itself?… (more)
Perhaps Odets' best play. I saw it revived in a small London theater a few years ago and it was still effective, though the hero's choice between boxing and music has become a cliche.
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 32
- Also by
- 18
- Members
- 881
- Popularity
- #29,074
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 9
- ISBNs
- 42
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1
