Andre Gregory
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Biography
Actor and theater director Andre Gregory parlayed his gift for gab into a "late-blooming" career performing in features. Born in a Paris hotel because his mother left a card game with a Turkish ambassador a bit too late, Gregory grew up in Hollywood, where, by his own description, he could "look out of our window and see Garbo and Dietrich and Flynn and Thomas Mann playing doubles." He attended Harvard and, set on becoming an actor, studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio, but success eluded him. Before chucking a performing arts career to pursue law, he briefly tried directing and, to his own surprise, found a niche in avant-garde theater, staging Jean Genet's "The Blacks" Off-Broadway in 1962. Soon thereafter, he set up his own theater projects in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles. In 1968, Gregory began his most important undertaking in theater when he founded The Manhattan Project, an experimental group that staged, among other works, Samuel Beckett's "Endgame," Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull," Wallace Shawn's "Our Late Night" and an offbeat and highly popular take on "Alice in Wonderland," which later toured internationally on and off for five years and earned him both a special OBIE Award and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director. Gregory missed acting, though, and the opening he needed presented itself when he and Shawn reteamed, this time as both writers and performers, under the directorial eye of Louis Malle for the acclaimed art-house hit "My Dinner with Andre" (1981). Playing themselves, Gregory and Shawn conducted a witty, seemingly improvised conversation over supper for the entire film, with Gregory proving himself a galvanizing raconteur given to relating wild encounter group adventures in the woods. Gregory subsequently had the acting career he had always wanted, appearing onstage opposite his daughter Marina in "The Tempest" and on Broadway in the Neil Simon farce "Rumors." His film roles typically capitalized on his mix of the cerebral and the zany, presenting him as dreamers, oddball upscale professionals and eccentric intellectuals. Parts ranged from a kooky reverend in Peter Weir's "The Mosquito Coast" (1986) to an equally strange holy man in "Protocol" (1984) to John the Baptist in Martin Scorsese's controversial "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988). Some films used him less colorfully ("Demolition Man" 1993, "The Shadow" 1994), but "Vanya on 42nd Street" (1994) brought his film career full circle as it not only reteamed him with Malle but also cast him in the same role that "Dinner" did--as theater director Andre Gregory, once again wondering about the intersection between life and art. Widower of filmmaker and theatrical entrepreneur Mercedes Gregory, Gregory appeared with their actor son Nick in Henry Jaglom's "Last Summer in the Hamptons" (1995).
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Cast (Special)
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Misc. Crew (Special)
Life Events
1949
Acting on the advice of her close friend Marlene Dietrich, Gregory's mother took him to thyroid treatments at age 14 to bring down his weight from 250 pounds (date approximate)
1962
Attempt to launch career as an actor initially unsuccessful; decided to quit at age 28 (date approximate)
1962
Brought Jean Genet's landmark play, "The Blacks", to Off-Broadway
1968
Returned to New York; founded The Manhattan Project, which lasted for eight years
1975
First worked with actor-writer Wallace Shawn when The Manhattan Project presented Shawn's play, "Our Late Night"
1981
Made feature acting and screenwriting debut as the title character in Louis Malle's "My Dinner with Andre", which co-starred and was co-written by Wallace Shawn
1986
Performed as part of the company in a taped-for-TV concert presentation of the Stephen Sondheim musical "Follies" entitled "Follies in Concert"
1989
Played Prospero opposite his daughter Marina Gregory as Miranda in a production of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" presented by Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA
1993
Series TV debut, guesting on an episode of the Fox-TV anthology drama, "Tribeca"; played a professor in the episode, "Heros Exoletus"
1994
Reteamed with Shawn and Malle for "Vanya on 42nd Street" and played himself, Andre Gregory the director
1995
Acted with son Nick in Henry Jaglom's "Last Summer in the Hamptons"; also appeared as himself in the documentary "Who is Henry Jaglom?"
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