11 Facts About Julian Beck

Julian Beck was an American actor, stage director, poet, and painter.

Julian Beck is best known for co-founding and directing the Living Theatre, as well as his role as Reverend Henry Kane, the malevolent preacher in the supernatural horror film Poltergeist II: The Other Side.

Julian Beck was named after Julia Beck, his mother's sister and his father's first wife, who had died in the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Julian Beck briefly attended Yale University, but withdrew to pursue writing and art.

Julian Beck was an abstract expressionist painter in the 1940s, but his career turned upon meeting his future wife.

The Living Theatre moved out of New York in 1964, after the Internal Revenue Service shut it down when Julian Beck failed to pay $23,000 in back taxes.

Julian Beck had a role as the main antagonist in Poltergeist II: The Other Side, which was released posthumously.

Julian Beck appeared in an episode of Miami Vice that aired 13 days after his death.

Malina and Julian Beck shared a lover in Lester Schwartz, a shipyard worker who was the third husband of Andy Warhol acolyte Dorothy Podber.

Julian Beck was diagnosed with stomach cancer in late 1983, and he died two years later on September 14,1985 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, aged 60.

In 2004,19 years after his death, Julian Beck was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.