Moss Hart was an American playwright and director of plays and musical theater. Hart recalled his youth, early career and rise to fame in his autobiography, Act One, adapted to film in 1963, with George Hamilton portraying Hart.Hart grew up at 74 East 105th Street in Manhattan, "a neighborhood not of carriages and hansom cabs, but of dray wagons, pushcarts, and immigrants" (Bach 1). Early on he had a strong relationship with his Aunt Kate, whom he later lost contact with because of a falling out between her and his parents, and her weakening mental state. She got him interested in the theater and took him to see performances often. Hart even went so far as to create an "alternate ending" to her life in his book Act One. He writes that she died while he was working on out-of-town tryouts for The Beloved Bandit. Later, Kate became quite eccentric, vandalizing Hart's home, writing threatening letters and setting fires backstage during rehearsals for Jubilee. But his relationship with Kate was life-forming. He understood that the theater made possible "the art of being somebody else… not a scrawny boy with bad teeth, a funny name… and a mother who was a distant drudge." (Bach 13).After working several years as a director of amateur theatrical groups and an entertainment director at summer resorts, he scored his first Broadway hit with Once In A Lifetime (1930), a farce about the arrival of the sound era in Hollywood. The play was written in collaboration with Broadway veteran George S. Kaufman, who regularly wrote with others, notably Marc Connelly and Edna Ferber. (Kaufman also performed in the play's original Broadway cast in the role of a frustrated playwright hired by Hollywood.) During the next decade, Kaufman and Hart teamed on a string of successes, including You Can't Take It With You (1936) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1939). Though Kaufman had hits with others, Hart is generally conceded to be his most important collaborator.You Can't Take It With You, the story of an eccentric family and how they live during the Depression, won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for drama. It is Hart's most-revived play. When director Frank Capra and writer Robert Riskin adapted it for the screen in 1938, the film won the Best Picture Oscar and Capra won for Best Director.The Man Who Came To Dinner is about the caustic Sheridan Whiteside who, after injuring himself slipping on ice, must stay in a Midwestern family's house. The character was based on Kaufman and Hart's friend, critic Alexander Woollcott. Other characters in the play are based on Noel Coward, Harpo Marx and Gertrude Lawrence.After George Washington Slept Here (1940), Kaufman and Hart called it quits. Hart had decided it was time to move on. Throughout the 1930s, Hart also worked, with and without Kaufman, on several musicals and revues, including Face the Music (1932), As Thousands Cheer (1933), with songs by Irving Berlin, Jubilee (musical) (1935), with songs by Cole Porter and I'd Rather Be Right (1937), with songs by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. (Lorenz Hart and Moss Hart were not related.)Hart continued to write plays after parting with Kaufman, such as Christopher Blake (1946) and Light Up The Sky (1948), as well as the book for the musical Lady In The Dark (1941), with songs by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin. However, he became best known during this period as a director.Among the Broadway hits he staged were Junior Miss (1941), Dear Ruth (1944) and Anniversary Waltz (1954). By far his biggest hit was the musical My Fair Lady (1956), adapted from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The show ran over seven years and won a Tony Award for Best Musical. Hart picked up the Tony for Best Director.Occasionally, Hart wrote scree
Famous Broadway playwright
Daughter Catherine (born June 1950)
Son Christopher Hart .
His play, "Merrily We Roll Along", co-written with George S. Kaufman , was adapted into a 1982 Broadway play by Stephen Sondheim. A subsequent London production was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2001 (2000 season) for Best Musical.
He was nominated for a 1998 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for "Lady in the Dark" performed at the Royal National Theatre: Lyttelton, as Best New Musical of the 1997 season.
His musical "Lady in the Dark" was awarded the 1997 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Musical.
Pictured on a 37 USA commemorative postage stamp issued 25 October 2004, one day following the centenary of his birth.
Won Broadways 1957 Tony Award as Best Director for "My Fair Lady."
Died a year after the opening of the original Broadway production of "Camelot" by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe , the last show that he directed.
Is portrayed by George Hamilton in Act One
Throughout much of his adult life, he suffered from severe depression, mood swings, and other emotional problems that were intensified, and possibly caused, by intense anxiety stemming from his sexual orientation. Nevertheless, the long-time bachelor married singer/actress Kitty Carlisle at age 40+ and had two children. After his death, Ms. Carlisle spent much of her widowhood (she never remarried) actively squelching such rumors.
He suffered his fatal heart attack outside his house as his wife was backing the car out of the garage to take him to the dentist.
Won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the play "You Cant Take it with You" collaborating with George S. Kaufman.
In his 20s Hart served as entertainment director for the famous Flagler resort hotel in New Yorks Catskill Mountains, where he was assisted by Dore Schary , who would go on to head MGM. The hotels main competitor was the legendary Grossingers resort, where entertainment was headed by Don Hartman , who would continue the competition when he went on to head Paramount Pictures.
Had suffered at least one heart attack prior to his fatal one. This was on October 14, 1960, while in his hotel room in Toronto, where he was holding an out-of-town audition and generally working on revisions for the soon-to-open Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe Broadway musical "Camelot," which he was to direct.
Inducted into the United States Croquet Hall of Fame in 1979.
[on Beverly Hills] The most beautiful slave quarters in the world.
[on Julie Andrews] She has that wonderful British strength that makes,you wonder why they lost India.
The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.
It was possible in this wonderful city for that nameless little boy -for any of its millions- to have a decent chance to scale the walls and achieve what they wished. Wealth, rank or an imposing name counted for nothing. The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.
There is something maddening about mediocrity that calls forth the worst in those who are forced to deal with it. .
