Mel Gussow | |
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| Born | Melvyn Hayes Gussow (1933-12-19)December 19, 1933 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 29, 2005(2005-04-29) (aged 71) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Theater critic, movie critic, author |
| Notable credit(s) | The New York Times;Newsweek; Army newspaper Heidelberg, Germany[1] |
| Spouse | Ann Meredith Beebe Gussow (19??–2005; his death) |
| Children | 1 |
Melvyn Hayes "Mel" Gussow (GUSS-owe; December 19, 1933 – April 29, 2005)[1] was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote forThe New York Times for 35 years.
Gussow was born inNew York City and grew up inRockville Centre, Long Island.[1] He attendedSouth Side High School,[2] andMiddlebury College, where he served as editor ofThe Campus, and graduated in 1955 with a BA degree inAmerican literature. He earned an MA from theColumbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1956.[citation needed]
Gussow was a writer for the Army newspaper inHeidelberg, Germany, where he was stationed for two years.[1] He was hired byNewsweek, where he became a movie and theater critic. His first Broadway play review was ofWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1962. This review began a lifelong relationship with the play's author,Edward Albee, that included Gussow's 1999 biography of the playwright entitledEdward Albee: A Singular Journey.[1]
Gussow joined theNew York Times in 1969 and over his 35-year career wrote more than 4,000 of the newspaper's reviews and articles.[1] He authored eight books,[3] including a series of four which were considered "conversations" with playwrightsArthur Miller,Samuel Beckett,Harold Pinter, andTom Stoppard.Times arts reporterJesse McKinley notes that Gussow's interview collections became "staples of college drama curriculums and the libraries of gossip-loving theater fans".[1]
In the late 1960s and in 1970, he and his wife Ann and son Ethan, actorDustin Hoffman, and several other families lived in apartments in a townhouse at 16 West 11th Street. On March 6, 1970, the townhouse next door to theirs wasdestroyed by an explosion of dynamite that killed three and injured two members of theWeathermen organization. In an article written by Gussow on the 30th anniversary of the disaster, Gussow reported an FBI finding that "had all the explosives detonated, the explosion would have leveled everything on both sides of the street." He and his family remained residents of Greenwich Village after the explosion, maintaining a home on West 10th Street.[4]
Gussow was married to Ann, who survived him, along with their son Ethan, who married Susan Baldomar in 1998.[1][5]
Gussow died on April 29, 2005, atNew York-Presbyterian Hospital frombone cancer at the age of 71.[1][6] He had kept working until just three weeks before his death, writing at that time an obituary along withNew York Times colleagueCharles McGrath of Canadian-born Pulitzer Prize-winning writerSaul Bellow.[7]
In 2008, Gussow was inducted posthumously into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame at the same time as actor and playwrightHarvey Fierstein, the actorsJohn Cullum,Lois Smith andDana Ivey, the directorJack O'Brien, the playwrightPeter Shaffer, and thelibrettistJoseph Stein.[8]
The papers and audio/video recordings of Mel Gussow were gifted to theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin in 2009. The extensive collection of over 200 boxes consists of article and manuscript drafts, interview notes and transcripts, correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, subject files, clippings, and published material. More than 900 sound recordings of Gussow's interviews with actors, playwrights, writers, and directors are held in the Ransom Center's Sound Recordings Collection.[9] In 2018, the Ransom Center began releasing the interviews online as part of their digital collections.[10]
Mr. Gussow was survived by his wife, Ann, and his son, Ethan, both of Manhattan, and by a brother, Paul.
In common with Ms. Goodwin, I grew up in Rockville Centre. Her older sister, Jeanne, was a classmate of mine atSouth Side High School
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