Rabb, Ellis

Actor, director, producer, and author Ellis W. Rabb was born June 20, 1930 in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1952, Rabb made his stage debut as the Dauphin in King John at the Antioch Area Theatre, Yellow Springs, Ohio (Shakespeare under-the-Stars), under the direction of Arthur Lithgow. Rabb performed in numerous productions of Shakespeare at the festival (sometimes directing) through 1957, also becoming artistic director that year. He made his New York debut off Broadway in Aristophanes' The Thesmophoriazusae at Theatre East in 1955. After several off-Broadway appearances, Rabb received a Clarence Derwent Award in 1957 for his portrayal of Alceste in The Misanthrope (Theatre East, 1956). He also performed with the American Shakespeare Festival (Stratford, Conn.) in 1958, then toured in the roles of Verges and Don Pedro with ASF's production of Much Ado About Nothing with Katharine Hepburn that same year. Rabb's first known Broadway appearance was as General Koschnadieff in Noel Coward's Look after Lulu! (with Jack Gilford, Tammy Grimes, and Roddy McDowall) at Henry Miller's Theatre, 1959. On December 4, 1959, Rabb married actress Rosemary Harris. They divorced in 1967, but remained friends and worked on a number of professional projects together over the next two decades. These included The Merchant of Venice and A Streetcar Named Desire (both directed by Rabb for the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, 1973) and The Royal Family (Rabb directed and performed at the Helen Hayes Theatre, 1976, and for television, 1977; Kirk Browning codirected the Great Performances telecast). In 1960, Rabb founded the Association of Producing Artists (APA), a company of actors and producing associates, which for almost ten years, presented classical and modern works in repertory, both on and off Broadway, establishing residencies in and touring parts of the U.S., Canada, and Bermuda. As artistic director, performer, and adaptor, Rabb established a company that came, perhaps, closest to an American national theater. Along with performing and directing, Rabb wrote numerous scripts for theater, film, and television (mostly unproduced), as well as other works of fiction. Clap Your Hands, which Rabb wrote with Nicholas Martin, with music by Claibe Richardson, was directed by Rabb at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego in 1983. Rabb also drew costume and scene sketches for a number of productions, especially for Shakespeare's plays. Having returned to live in his native Memphis in the 1980s, Rabb died there of heart failure at the age of 67, on January 11, 1998.