Rouben Mamoulian Biography

Fast Facts

• The Director's Guild of America honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1982
• In 1981, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
• Won a Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1984
• Received his training as an actor at Moscow Art Theatre
• Preferred to give his scenes a stylized look, preferring a poetic look to realism
• Produced or directed such landmark stage musicals as "Porgy and Bess," "Oklahoma!" and "Carousel․"
• Though enclosing cameras in soundproof booths was popular at the time, he rejected the technique and instead used a camera that could be moved freely, helping to reestablish film as a powerful visual medium
• He and 10 other directors organized what would become the Directors Guild of America at a meeting at the home of King Vidor in 1936
• Published the drama textbook "Hamlet Revised and Interpreted" in 1965
• Was the last surviving founder of the Directors Guild of American