Jules Irving

Actor, Film director

1925 – 1979

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Who was Jules Irving?

Jules Irving was an American actor, director, educator, and producer, who in the 1950s co-founded the San Francisco Actor's Workshop. When the Actor's Workshop closed in 1966, Irving moved to New York City and became the first Producing Director of the Repertory Company of the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center.

In 1955, the Actor's Workshop was the first West Coast theater to sign an Equity "Off-Broadway" contract. Irving had started the Workshop with fellow New Yorker Herbert Blau, whom he knew from undergraduate days at New York University and then during graduate study at Stanford University. The men were both professors at San Francisco State, Irving in the Drama department and Blau in English.

Known to friends as "Buddy," Irving was from childhood deeply involved in theater, supported in this by his family along with his older brother Richard, despite a degree of religious reservation inculcated by bizarre bearded Russian/Yiddish-speaking rabbinical teachers that dis-inspired what Irving called a "lost generation" of the children of Jewish immigrants. He was active in school shows and made his Broadway debut at the age of thirteen in George S. Kaufman's The American Way. He joined the army in 1943, serving in the infantry during the Battle of the Bulge and as a Russian translator when his unit met Soviet forces. After V-E Day, he transferred to Special Services and had the opportunity to hone his theater managerial skills as he organized camp shows under Joshua Logan.

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Born
Apr 13, 1925
New York City
Also known as
  • Jules Israel
  • Julius Israel
  • Jules "Buddy" Irving
  • Buddy
Siblings
Spouses
Children
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Lived in
  • New York City
Died
Jul 28, 1979
Reno

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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"Jules Irving." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/jules_irving>.

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