Herman Shumlin

Biography

Herman Shumlin (Atwood, Colorado, 1898 – New York City, 1979) was an American theatre director and producer who worked prominently on Broadway, and he also directed two films. He began as a newspaper reporter before turning to the stage, and in 1927 he started his Broadway career with the play Celebrity. Over roughly forty-seven years he worked as a director, producer, or both.

His best-known Broadway work includes The Little Foxes (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1941), and Inherit the Wind (1955), which ran for 806 performances and became a 1960 film starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. On screen he directed Watch on the Rhine (1943), an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's anti-Nazi play that he had already staged on Broadway, with Bette Davis in the lead, and Confidential Agent (1945), a spy story based on Graham Greene's novel and starring Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall. He also taught directing at the City College of New York in the 1960s and 1970s. His papers are held at the New York Public Library, and his stage work remains the core of his reputation.

Key films

• Watch on the Rhine (1943): an anti-Nazi drama adapted from Lillian Hellman's play, with Bette Davis and Paul Lukas.
• Confidential Agent (1945): a spy thriller based on Graham Greene's novel, with Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall.
• Inherit the Wind (1960): a film adaptation of a play that Shumlin had produced and directed on Broadway.