GERALD GORDON
(Producer, Director, Writer, Teacher)
For over forty years, Gerald Gordon has been producing, directing, choreographing, acting, and teaching in New York and Los Angeles - and now, in Las Vegas. To quote the dean of the Los Angeles drama critics, the late Charles Faber, "Gerald Gordon is still a young man, and has been a highly respected Los Angeles producer and director for many years."
A native of Ithaca, New York, Mr. Gordon was graduated from Cornell University and has been in show business for over forty-five years. As a very small child, he appeared as an actor with his first Equity summer theatre. He has produced and/or directed some 200 stage shows as well as having directed, taught or worked with many of today's top stars, including Adrien Brody (who in 2003 won the Best Acting Academy Award for his starring role in THE PIANIST), Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Ruth Warrick, Janis Paige, Ralph Bellamy, Debbie Reynolds, Paul LeMat, Neile Adams McQueen, Jan Peerce, Ann B. Davis, Richard and Robert Sherman (two Oscars for the film MARY POPPINS), Zero Mostel, Estelle Winwood, Brian Regan, Joseph, Sam and Ben Bottoms, Andy Lauer (running role on CAROLINE IN THE CITY), Christopher Titus (starred in his own TV show for three seasons - TITUS), Mark Curry (starred in his own TV show for a number of seasons HANGING WITH MR. COOPER), Bruce McGill who seems to be in every movie out of Hollywood beginning with his memorable role in the original ANIMAL HOUSE and many others; Joe Flanigan, another former student, is the star of the new Sci-Fi series, STARGATE: ATLANTIS. Gordon currently has about a dozen students starring on various prime time episodics or on day time soap operas. Another successful former student is GREG GRUNBERG, one of the stars of the hit TV show HEROES. As director and producer, his production of THE FANTASTICKS still holds the record for the longest running musical in the history of Los Angeles theatre, running nearly five years. (PHANTOM came close but didn't pass it.)
As an actor, during the 50s and 60s, Mr. Gordon appeared on almost every major television show originating from both coasts. His credits include running roles on THE EDGE OF NIGHT and AS THE WORLD TURNS as well as roles on most of the major TV shows of the day. In his Hollywood Center Theatre, he was the first person allowed to showcase professional talent and has long been considered the father of the Equity Waiver Theatre movement in Los Angeles which is now so prevalent. In 1963, Mr. Gordon founded and became president of the Los Angeles Youth Theatre, Inc. which serves as a testing ground for new and young talent. Many stars and working actors seen today were launched by their work with Mr. Gordon and his Youth Theatre. As a teacher, he has served as guest director at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, guest lecturer at Immaculate Heart College and USC and has been a popular and sought-after visiting teacher in many of the public and private schools. For a fourteen year period, he was managing artistic director for one of L. A. 's oldest legitimate theatres, the HOLLYWOOD CENTER THEATRE, and was resident artistic director for the famed MAYFAIR MUSIC HALL in Santa Monica. He has also worked in various production capacities on TV shows for Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Eddie Fisher, Groucho Marx, Nat King Cole, and Walter Winchell to name a few.
Currently, he completed the direction of a small film entitled HAPPILY AFTER FOREVER which picked up the award for BEST ROMANTIC DRAMA for the film and his leading lady, Barbara Ann Rollins was awarded BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMATIC SHORT. These awards were presented by the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival. A few years ago, Mr. Gordon directed a feature film, SO LONG BLUE BOY. He recently completed work on a video film YOUNG HEARTS, BROKEN DREAMS which he not only produced and directed but also wrote. A few years back he directed the Broadway bound original musical FERGUSON THE TAILOR starring Barbra Streisand's sister, Roslyn Kind who recorded a new ballad for his current video film. More recently, he directed the world premiere of a new and exciting drama entitled DEMONS: THE LAST DAYS OF EDGAR ALLEN POE which starred Barry Jenner. Meeting with rave reviews, this was followed by his direction of I THINK I KILLED MY WIFE at the Tiffany Theatre in Hollywood starring Donnie Most from HAPPY DAYS. Currently, he has written a screenplay entitled OUTCRY which is a powerful drama about a father and his two sons, a seventeen year old athlete, the apple of the father's eye and a young son of twenty-one, all in a dysfunctional family. The twenty-one year old befriends a wise older black woman, rich in love and knowledge and she is instrumental in getting the father and older son to finally communicate. There is also a satirical comedy he has written as a western sci-fi spoof, SHOWDOWN AT TWIN BLUFFS, a youth oriented film. He has been signed to direct a new script GOPHER FLATS, a TYPICAL OLD FASHION WESTERN much desired but not done too often in the current market. He's also agreed to direct the multi-media large scale musical LIGHT WAVES based on the life of Christ which will open in Nashville, TN and then move on to New York for the 2011 Broadway season. Presently, he is working on four different stage musicals to be produced in major hotel/casinos in Las Vegas: TOM JONES, the musical; a recreation of his hit show from Santa Monica, California A NIGHT AT THE OLD ENGLISH MUSIC HALL where it ran for two years; and the highly original AMERICA DREAMS which will undoubtedly compete with the James Cagney YANKEE DOODLE DANDY feeling of pride in America. He will produce and direct the musical revue PERSONALS in a major Vegas Hotel/Casino in the winter of 2010. Gordon resides in Las Vegas where he has been elected to the prestigious organization DISTINGUISHED MEN OF SOUTHERN NEVADA along with the Ex-Governor of the State of Nevada, the president of Bank of America, the president of Caesar's Palace, and other notables. Most recently, he was awarded membership in the national directory of WHO'S WHO IN EXECUTIVES AND PROFESSIONALS IN AMERICA.
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