Gene Saks, Tony Award Winning Director, Dies in His East Hampton Home

Actor and Tony award winning director, Gene Saks died of pneumonia in his East Hampton home on Saturday, according to multiple reports. He was 93.

Saks, who was born in New York City as Jean Michael Saks, before legally changing the spelling of his name, to Morris Saks and Beatrix Leukowitz on Nov. 8, 1921, according to The New York Times.

In 1943, he joined the Navy, where he took part in the invasion at Normandy, after graduating from Cornell University, according to Newsday.

He became one of Broadway’s most famed director between the 1960’s and 1980’s after starting out as an actor, according to a report in New York Daily News.

In 1949, Saks made his acting debut on Broadway’s “South Pacific” but he is best-known for starring in “A Thousand Clowns” in 1952, according to New York Daily News.

The first Broadway show Saks directed was Carl Reiner’s “Enter Laughing” in 1963 and later one went on to direct hits such as “Mame” in 1966, “Same Time, Next Year” in 1975 and “Half a Sixpence” in 1965.

Before he began directing, while he was still an actor in 1963, Saks began collaborating with playwright Neil Simon when he told Saks to critique a tryout of “Barefoot in the Park” in New Hope, Pennsylvania, according to Newsday. The show ended up being one of Broadway’s biggest hits of the time and ran for over 1,500 performances.

Three years later, Simon created a film version of the play and Saks was hired as the director of the film which starred Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, according to Newsday.

He won three Tony Awards in 1977 for Best Direction of a Musical (Love My Wife), in 1983 for Best Direction of a Play (Brighton Beach Memoirs) and in 1985 for Best Direction of a Play (Biloxi Blues).

In 1991, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame before directing his last Broadway show “Barrymore” in 1997 which starred starring Christopher Plummer in ‘97, according to New York Daily News.

Saks is predeceased by his first wife, Bea Arthur, who he married in 1950. Together they had two children, Matthew and Daniel. He is also survived by his wife, Karen and their daughter, Annabelle, according to Newsday.