18 Facts About George Abbott

George Francis Abbott was an American theatre producer, director, playwright, screenwriter, film director and producer whose career spanned eight decades.

George Abbott received numerous honors including six Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1982.

George Abbott received an Academy Award for Best Writing nomination for All Quiet on the Western Front.

George Abbott later directed the movie musicals adaptations of The Pajama Game, and Damn Yankees.

George Abbott then worked for a year as "author, gofer, and actor" at the Bijou Theatre in Boston, where his play The Man in the Manhole won a contest.

George Abbott frequently was called upon to supervise changes when a show was having difficulties in tryouts or previews prior to its Broadway opening.

George Abbott's first hit was Broadway, written and directed in partnership with Philip Dunning, whose play Abbott "rejiggered".

George Abbott worked in Hollywood as a film writer and director while continuing with his theatre work.

George Abbott introduced the "fast-paced, tightly integrated style that influenced" performers and especially directors such as Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse and Hal Prince.

George Abbott was married to Edna Lewis from 1914 to her death in 1930; they had one child.

George Abbott had a long romance with actress Maureen Stapleton from 1968 to 1978.

George Abbott was 43 and he was 81 when they began their affair, then ten years later Abbott left her for a younger woman.

George Abbott was a vigorous man who remained active past his 100th birthday by golfing and dancing.

George Abbott died of a stroke on January 31,1995, at his home on Sunset Island off Miami Beach, Florida, at age 107.

George Abbott was heard saying to his companion, 'There must be somebody important here.

George Abbott was cremated at Woodlawn Park Cemetery in Miami and the ashes were taken by his wife.

George Abbott received New York City's Handel Medallion in 1976, honorary doctorates from the Universities of Rochester and Miami, and the Kennedy Centre Lifetime Achievement Award in 1982.

George Abbott was inducted into the Western New York Entertainment Hall of Fame and the American Theatre Hall of Fame.