Jeff Warren, actor, singer, director
Hyfler/Rosner
BYLINE: Frank Van Straten, Melbourne Age
JEFF WARREN - ACTOR - SINGER - DIRECTOR AND EDUCATOR - 21-1-1921 - 21-9-2003
A theatre legend has died in Melbourne. Jeff Warren, who starred as the King
in the original Australian production of The King and I, and had an
illustrious career as an actor, singer, director and teacher in the US,
Britain and Australia, died on September 21 after a short illness. He was
82.
Born George Warren Jones in Wagner, South Dakota, in 1921, Jeff was educated
in Minneapolis and graduated from the high school there in 1939.
In New York he studied voice with Dimitri Mitropolous and acting with Lee
Strasberg. He made his professional stage debut in 1940 as an extra with the
visiting Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
He was tenor soloist in the national tour of Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark,
and appeared in the same show on Broadway in 1943. His later Broadway
credits include the original productions of One Touch of Venus, Follow the
Girls, Hollywood Pinafore, The Day Before Spring, Brigadoon and Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes. He played the role of Kenneth Gibson in Call Me Madam in New
York and later in London. He also starred there in the British musical
Wedding in Paris and appeared in the 1952 Royal Variety Performance.
For six years from 1956 Jeff starred in or directed a long list of "summer
stock" musicals throughout the US - including The King and I.
In 1962 he was engaged by the Garnet H. Carroll organisation to star in the
Australian production. It opened at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne, on
December 22, 1962, and toured with enormous success through all states and
New Zealand until April 1964.
After a US concert tour Jeff returned to Australia in June 1965 to direct
and star in the Broadway hit comedy Any Wednesday. He went on to direct the
Australian productions of Dear Me, the Sky is Falling (St Martin's,
Melbourne, 1965) and The Fantasticks (Phillip Theatre, Sydney, 1966).
In 1967-68 and 1970-71 Jeff was Assistant Professor of Drama at West
Virginia University. In 1971, with his partner, dancer Calvin von Reinhold,
he settled in Melbourne and became an Australian citizen.
He became resident director at St Martin's Theatre in South Yarra, and
principal of its drama school. His work as a director was dazzlingly
eclectic: particularly notable were The Servant, Salad Days, Brecht on
Brecht, Come Blow Your Horn, The Insect Play and Uncle Vanya. In 1974 he was
guest instructor at Hawkes Bay Performing Arts Centre in Napier, New
Zealand, and the following year he established his own school of acting in
South Melbourne.
From 1976 Jeff managed the innovative Open Stage Theatre at Melbourne State
College. In his spare time he was seen on television in shows as varied as
Homicide, Eureka Stockade, and the very last episode of The Sullivans.
On September 19, 1993, to the delight of his many friends and colleagues,
Jeff made an exciting but all-too-brief "comeback". His portrayal of Roscoe
in Tony Sheldon's starry single-performance Follies in Concert for the
Melbourne International Festival at the State Theatre, Victorian Arts
Centre, was a personal and artistic triumph.
Over his long career Jeff Warren worked with many of the greats of the
theatre - Lotte Lenya, Kurt Weill, Carol Channing, Ethel Merman, Paul Muni,
Marlon Brando, Gertrude Lawrence, Lerner and Loewe, and many more.
Through the National Theatre Drama School, he funded a series of awards for
young theatre artists and passed on his knowledge and expertise in memorable
master classes.
He had an encyclopedic knowledge of music theatre and remained mentally
sharp right to the end. He donated his vast collection of personal and
theatrical memorabilia to the Victorian Arts Centre's Performing Arts
Museum.
Jeff is survived by his sister Phyllis, niece Nadine and grand-niece
Heather, and an army of friends, colleagues and admirers.
His wish for a private cremation will be respected, but there will be a
celebration of his life at his beloved Princess Theatre at 4pm on Friday
October 10.
Frank Van Straten, OAM is a Melbourne writer, broadcaster and performing
arts historian, and a former director of the Victorian Arts Centre's
Performing Arts Museum. His friendship with Jeff Warren dates back to 1980.