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Mel Gussow

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Melvyn Arthur Gussow
BornDecember 19, 1933
StatusMarried, 1963
DiedApril 29, 2005
Other namesMel
Occupation(s)Theatre critic and author
Notable credit(s)The New York Times; Newsweek
SpouseAnn Meredith Beebe (Belissa) Gussow
ChildrenEthan Meredith Gussow
Parent(s)Donald and Betty Gussow
RelativesPaul Gussow (brother)

Melvyn Gussow (December 19, 1933April 29, 2005) was an influential American theatre critic who wrote for The New York Times for 35 years. His writing helped further the careers of actors, such as Kevin Kline, Meryl Streep, Matthew Broderick and Sigourney Weaver; playwrights, including Sam Shepard, David Mamet, John Guare, Harold Pinter, Edward Albee and Tom Stoppard; and theatre wunderkinds, such as Robert Wilson, Charles Ludlam, Richard Foreman, and Julie Taymor. He also influenced Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional theatres.

He was born in New York City in 1933 to parents Don and Betty Gussow and grew up on Long Island. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, graduating in 1955 with a Bachelors degree in American literature. He earned a Masters degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in 1956.

After 2 years in the U.S. Army, he was hired by Newsweek, where he became a movie and theatre critic. His first review of a Broadway play was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1962. It was a rave, and began a life-long relationship with the play's author, Edward Albee, resulting in Gussow's 1999 biography of the playwright, Edward Albee: A Singular Journey. Albee was just one playwright who openly praised Mr. Gussow as a sensitive and perceptive observer.

He wrote reviews for The Times for 35 years starting in 1969. His reviews were conceived of as collaborative or sympathetic rather than oppositional, and were considered by some peers as controversial as a result. He authored eight books, including a series of four which were "conversations" with playwrights Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard.

He brought many new talents to public attention, including Athol Fugard, Mac Wellman, Michael Gambon, Bill Irwin, Spalding Gray, and Whoopi Goldberg.

In 1970, he was involved, along with actor Dustin Hoffman, with an accidental bomb explosion that destroyed the house on West 11th Street that was inhabited by members of the The Weathermen, behind the Gussow residence on West 10th Street (a five to six family walkup building). Gussow retold the the event to the FBI in 2000, noted that the house contained enough explosives to level everything on both 11th Street and 10th Street.

He died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital from bone cancer. He was 71 and lived in Greenwich Village, Manhattan<ref name="gussow_obit">McKinley, Jesse. "Mel Gussow, Critic, Dies at 71: A Champion of Playwrights."

Family

He was survived by his wife, Ann Gussow of 41 years, and their son, Ethan. His younger brother, Paul Gussow, is a resident of Brooklyn, New York[1].

Notes

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference gussow_obit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).