Michael Strong

Michael Strong, born Cecil Natapoff on February 8, 1918, in New York City, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across four decades. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who fled the pogroms of Russia and arrived in the United States in 1903, Strong grew up in the Bronx, where his father worked as a mail carrier. He attended Brooklyn College, where he was a member of the Varsity Dramatic Society and participated in local theater productions and radio performances, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1938.

While still a student at Brooklyn College, Strong made his Broadway debut in 1937 in Wall Street Scene, a short-lived production. He went on to perform in Yiddish radio and took one of the principal roles in Men to the Sea before legally changing his name from Cecil Natapoff to Michael Strong in 1941. His Broadway career extended from 1941 to 1978 and included credits such as Taxi Tales, Dance of Death, The Changelings, Marco Millions, and Incident at Vichy. Strong served in the U.S. Army during World War II. In 1945, producer Hal B. Wallis signed him to a personal contract at Paramount Pictures and slated him for a role in The Searching Wind — the part originated on stage by Montgomery Clift — though Strong ultimately did not appear in the finished film.

Strong was a charter member of the Actors Studio, an affiliation that shaped much of his professional life. In 1959, Paul Newman saw Strong perform a one-act Anton Chekhov monologue at the Actors Studio and cast him in the starring role of a short film, On the Harmfulness of Tobacco, based on the Chekhov play of the same name. The 25-minute film was shot over five days at the Orpheum, a Yiddish theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and received only a limited release in New York and Los Angeles. The New York Times briefly reviewed it, calling it a "top-flight, one-man tour de force by Michael Strong." In January 1962, Newman removed his name from the project and declined to pursue distribution, later telling biographer Daniel O'Brien that he had made the film as a personal exercise in directing. The decision was a significant blow to Strong. The film was screened at Lincoln Center in 2017, its first public showing since 1962, and has since been described as a "lost masterpiece."

Director Elia Kazan cast Strong in supporting and ensemble roles on multiple occasions, and Strong appeared in the opening night casts of two plays by Arthur Miller. He appeared in both the 1949 stage production and William Wyler's 1951 film adaptation of Detective Story, playing a cat burglar. In 1962, Kazan invited Strong, Jason Robards, and other actors to help form the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, and during its inaugural 1963–1964 season Strong appeared in productions of Incident at Vichy and After the Fall. He also appeared alongside Zero Mostel and Eli Wallach in a stage adaptation of Eugène Ionesco's Rhinoceros, and served as understudy for Jack Klugman in the 1959 Broadway production of the musical Gypsy. In 1975, Strong appeared in a production of The Dybbuk at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

During the Golden Age of Television, Strong was a regular presence on live programming, including the Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse, as well as early series such as Danger and Suspense. He played the bartender Chuck in Sidney Lumet's 1960 televised adaptation of The Iceman Cometh and was a recurring cast member on the soap opera The Edge of Night. Over the course of his career, Strong made guest appearances in more than 120 television series, including The Fugitive, I Spy, Mission: Impossible, Columbo, The Green Hornet, Naked City, The F.B.I., Hawaii Five-O, Planet of the Apes, and The Streets of San Francisco. He played Dr. Roger Korby in the Star Trek episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" His film credits include Point Blank, Patton, and The Great Santini.

Strong's first marriage was to Theda Kropf, a fellow acting student at Brooklyn College who later became a kindergarten teacher. The two taught theater together at Camp Unity, an interracial summer camp for adults in Wingdale, New York. They had two children, Paul and Ellen Strong, before divorcing in 1966. His second wife was actress Diane Shalet, who had worked as an intern with the Lincoln Center troupe. Strong died of stomach cancer in Los Angeles, California, on September 17, 1980, at the age of 62.