Actor and Tony Award-winning director Gene Sachs died of pneumonia at his home in East Hampton on Saturday, according to multiple reports. It was 93.
Saks, who was born in New York as Jean Michael Saks, before legally changing the spelling of his name, to Morris Saks and Beatrix Leukowitz on Nov. 8, 1921, according to the New York Times.
In 1943, he joined the Navy, where he took part in the invasion of Normandy, after graduating from Cornell University, according to Newsday.
He became one of Broadway's most famous directors between the 1960s and 1980s after starting out as an actor, according to a New York Daily News report.
In 1949, Sacks made his acting debut in Broadway's “South Pacific,” but is best known for his starring role in “A Thousand Clowns” in 1952, according to the New York Daily News.
Saks' first Broadway show was Carl Reiner's Enter Laughing in 1963, and he later directed such hits as Mame in 1966, Same Time, Next Year in 1975 and Half a Sixpence in 1965.
Before he began directing, while still an actor in 1963, Sacks began working with playwright Neil Simon when he asked Sacks to critique a screening of “Barefoot in the Park” in New Hope, Pennsylvania, according to Newsday. The show ended up being one of Broadway's biggest hits of the era and ran for over 1,500 performances.
Three years later, Simon created a film version of the play and Sachs was hired to direct the film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, according to Newsday.
Won three Tony Awards in 1977 for Best Direction of a Musical (I love my wife), in 1983 for Best Director of a Play (Brighton Beach Memoirs) and in 1985 for the best direction of a play (Biloxi Blues).
In 1991, he was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame before directing his final Broadway show in 1997, “Barrymore,” starring Christopher Plummer in '97, according to the New York Daily News.
Sachs is predeceased by his first wife, Bea Arthur, whom he married in 1950. Together they had two children, Matthew and Daniel. He is also survived by his wife, Karen, and their daughter, Annabelle, according to Newsday.
