1. Joel Grey was born on Joel David Katz; April 11,1932 and is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director.
43 Facts About Joel Grey
1. 2.
Joel Grey is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical Cabaret on Broadway and in Bob Fosse's 1972 film adaptation.
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Joel Grey has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award for his performances in the Cabaret stage musical and film.
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Joel Grey earned the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award at the 76th Tony Awards in 2023.
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Joel Grey co-directed the 2011 revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart with George C Wolfe, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play at the 65th Tony Awards.
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Joel Grey earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards for Brooklyn Bridge.
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Joel Grey acted in Oz, Alias, House, Nurse Jackie, and The Old Man.
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Joel Grey was born Joel Katz in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Goldie "Grace" and Mickey Katz, an actor, comedian, and musician.
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Joel Grey attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, California.
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Joel Grey started his career, at age 10, in the Cleveland Play House's Curtain Pullers children's theatre program in the early 1940s, appearing in productions such as Grandmother Slyboots, Jack of Tarts and a lead role in their mainstage production of On Borrowed Time.
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Joel Grey changed his last name from Katz to Grey early in his career due to the stigma associated with having a surname with an obvious ethnicity attached.
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Joel Grey started his professional television career on The Colgate Comedy Hour from 1951 to 1954.
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Joel Grey then took on roles in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Grey appeared in several TV westerns including Maverick, Bronco and Lawman.
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Joel Grey gained his breakthrough performance originating the role of the Master of ceremonies in the Broadway musical Cabaret by John Kander and Fred Ebb in 1966.
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Joel Grey received raves for his role as the malevolent and sinister emcee of the Kit Kat Club.
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Joel Grey won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical at the 21st Tony Awards.
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Joel Grey was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical at the 23rd Tony Awards and received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance.
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Joel Grey reprised his role as the Master of ceremonies in the 1972 Bob Fosse directed film version of Cabaret.
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Joel Grey won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 45th Academy Awards in March 1973 for his performance.
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Joel Grey's victory was part of a Cabaret near-sweep, which saw Liza Minnelli win Best Actress and Fosse win Best Director, although it lost the Best Picture Oscar to The Godfather.
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Joel Grey was the guest star for the first episode of The Muppet Show in its first season in 1976, singing "Razzle Dazzle" from Chicago and "Willkommen" from Cabaret.
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Joel Grey returned to Broadway in the play Goodtime Charley, and the musical The Grand Tour, receiving Tony nominations for each.
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Joel Grey then acted in Steven Soderbergh's mystery thriller Kafka, starring Jeremy Irons, Theresa Russell and Ian Holm.
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That same year, Joel Grey appeared in the American Repertory Theater's production of When We Dead Awaken at the Sao Paulo Biennial.
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Joel Grey narrated the animated film Tom and Jerry: The Movie, and made a cameo appearance as himself in the Robert Altman film The Player.
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Joel Grey returned to Broadway as Amos Hart in the revival of the Bob Fosse musical Chicago.
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The revival was well received and Joel Grey earned the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
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In 2000, Joel Grey played Oldrich Novy in the Lars von Trier film Dancer in the Dark and acted in the musical film The Fantasticks and in the dark comedy Choke.
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Joel Grey had a recurring role as the evil reptilian demon Doc in The WB horror series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lemuel Idzik in the HBO prison drama Oz and as Another Mr Sloane in the ABC series Alias.
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Joel Grey originated the role of the Wizard of Oz in the Stephen Schwartz Broadway musical Wicked.
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Joel Grey took over the role from Robert Morse who previously played the Wizard in the San Francisco tryout run at the Curran Theatre.
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Joel Grey was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
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Joel Grey returned to Broadway in spring 2011 as Moonface Martin in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Anything Goes at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre.
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Joel Grey acted in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and Park Bench with Steve Buscemi.
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Joel Grey returned to Broadway in the 2016 revival of the Anton Chekhov play The Cherry Orchard starring opposite Diane Lane, and Chuck Cooper.
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In 2018, Joel Grey directed a Yiddish-language production of Fiddler on the Roof, which originated at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, then transferred to Stage 42 Off-Broadway.
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Joel Grey had a cameo role in the Lin-Manuel Miranda directed musical Tick, Tick.
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In 1958, Joel Grey married Jo Wilder; they divorced in 1982.
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Joel Grey is a photographer; his first book of photographs, Pictures I Had to Take, was published in 2003; its follow-up, Looking Hard at Unexpected Things, was published in 2006.
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Joel Grey writes about his family, his acting career, and the challenges of being gay in his 2016 memoir, Master of Ceremonies.
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Joel Grey won the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre on December 5,2016, presented by the York Theatre Company in New York City.
42.
Joel Grey was honored as The New Jewish Home's Eight Over Eighty Gala 2015 honoree.
43.
Joel Grey was presented with the Teddy Kollek Award by the World Jewish Congress in November 2019.