John Tillinger

John Tillinger, born Joachim Ferdinand Tillinger on June 28, 1938, in Tabriz, Iran, is a theatre director and actor whose career has spanned Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional stages. His father was German Jewish and his mother was Protestant. Tillinger was raised in England, where he first encountered the theatre.

His Broadway performing career ran from 1966 to 1985, during which he took on a series of notable roles. He appeared as standby for "Freddie" in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg in 1968, played "Roderigo" in Othello in 1970, and portrayed "Sandy Tyrell" in the play Hay Fever that same year. In 1973 he appeared as "Colin Jagger" in The Changing Room. Additional Broadway acting credits include Halfway Up the Tree, among other productions.

Tillinger transitioned into directing, earning his first Broadway directing credit with Solomon's Child in 1982, a production he had also directed at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1980. His Broadway directing work drew significant recognition in 1986, when he received both a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play and a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play, with the Tony nomination tied to Loot and the Drama Desk nominations covering both Loot and It's Only a Play. That same year he won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Direction of a Play for Loot.

Subsequent Broadway directing credits include Love Letters in 1989 with Colleen Dewhurst and Jason Robards, The Price in 1992 with Eli Wallach, Three Men on a Horse in 1993 with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, Inherit the Wind in 1996 with George C. Scott and Charles Durning, The Sunshine Boys in 1997 again with Klugman and Randall, Night Must Fall in 1999 with Matthew Broderick, Judgment at Nuremberg in 2001 with George Grizzard and Maximilian Schell, Say Goodnight, Gracie in 2002 with Frank Gorshin, and Absurd Person Singular in 2005 with Paxton Whitehead and Sam Robards. His direction of Judgment at Nuremberg earned him an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play in 2001.

Off-Broadway, Tillinger directed Entertaining Mr Sloane in 1981, After the Fall in 1984, Loot in 1986, What the Butler Saw in 1989, The Lisbon Traviata in 1989, Lips Together, Teeth Apart in 1991, Sylvia in 1995, and Jewtopia in 2004. His Off-Broadway work brought him two Lucille Lortel Awards for Outstanding Director, one in 1989 for Love Letters and one in 1991 for The Lisbon Traviata. Entertaining Mr. Sloane also earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Director of a Play in 1982.

Tillinger served as literary consultant for the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut from 1975 to 1997, and also held the position of associate artistic director there. Among the productions he directed at Long Wharf were This Story of Yours, Another Country in 1982, and Broken Glass and Paddywhack in 1994. In regional theatre, he directed The Wedding Banquet at the Village Theatre in Seattle, Washington, in 2003.

In his personal life, Tillinger was married to actress and director Dorothy Lyman from 1971 to 1978. They have two children: actor Sebastian Tillinger and producer Emma Tillinger.