Elliot Edwards Martin (February 25, 1924 – May 21, 2017) was an American theater producer and stage manager. Working largely as an independent producer, he was credited as a producer on 35 Broadway productions between 1962 and 2008, after working as a stage manager on about a dozen Broadway productions between 1953 and 1962. He also produced Off-Broadway productions, national tours and summer stock. His Broadway productions included the original productions of Glengarry Glen Ross, Joe Turner's Come and Gone and Shadowlands, revivals of Of Mice and Men and American Buffalo, and three productions of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, the first of which (1973) received a Special Tony Award. Beginning in 1967 he was, for three seasons, the first director of the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, heading the organization that ran the Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum, and brought the Royal Shakespeare Company and Laurence Olivier's National Theatre to the Ahmanson. He was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2012.
Early life Martin was born in Denver, Colorado, on February 25, 1924, to Will H. Martin, a life insurance salesman, and the former Alma Harvey. As a teenager he worked summers as a cowboy, and at 17 a local radio station gave him his own program. He moved to New York after World War II.
Career Performer Martin made his stage debut in the original London production of Oklahoma!, which opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in April 1947. He played Fred and sang in the chorus. The company also included the singer and actress Marjorie Cuesta, whom he married in 1949. The production ran for more than 1,500 performances, at the time the longest run in the theater's history. He and Cuesta also toured in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro. His only Broadway performing role was in the musical Texas, Li'l Darlin' (1949–1950).
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