Milton Katselas

Milton George Katselas (December 22, 1933 – October 24, 2008) was an American-Greek theater and film director, producer, and acting instructor born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Greek immigrant parents who operated a small restaurant outside the gates of a Westinghouse Electric plant. His father later entered the movie theater business and ran a local theater company of Greek actors. Katselas was born with the surname Katsalas, which he later adjusted to Katselas.

After completing high school, Katselas enrolled at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech, now known as Carnegie Mellon University, to study theater. During a visit to New York, he slipped into one of Lee Strasberg's acting classes and, on the same trip, encountered director Elia Kazan on the street. Katselas approached Kazan and spoke to him in Greek; Kazan invited him to come to New York after finishing college. Following his graduation in 1954, Katselas returned to New York and began studying with Strasberg while serving as an apprentice to Kazan at the Actors Studio. He subsequently worked alongside directors Joshua Logan, Joseph Anthony, and Sanford Meisner before pursuing his own directing career.

Katselas made his Broadway performing debut in 1955 in the play The Lark. He went on to direct a number of significant stage productions, including Camino Real and The Rose Tattoo on Broadway. In 1960, he directed the original Off-Broadway production of Edward Albee's The Zoo Story, followed in 1961 by Michael Shurtleff's Call Me By My Rightful Name. His direction of Leonard Gershe's Butterflies Are Free earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play in 1970. He subsequently directed the 1972 film adaptation of Butterflies Are Free, starring Goldie Hawn, Edward Albert, and Eileen Heckart, who received an Academy Award for her performance. Katselas reunited with Gershe and Albert the following year for the film version of 40 Carats. He also directed the screen adaptation of Mark Medoff's When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?

In 1983, Katselas directed a Broadway revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives, the sole stage production in which Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton appeared together. Taylor, who served as a producer on the show, dismissed Katselas following a poorly received tryout in Boston, though he retained his directing credit for the Broadway run. His direction of local productions of The Seagull, Romeo and Juliet, and Streamers each earned him L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards for best direction.

In 1978, Katselas acquired the Beverly Hills Playhouse in Los Angeles, where he taught a master acting class for thirty years until his death. His students included Gene Hackman, George Clooney, Alec Baldwin, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Selleck, Ted Danson, Patrick Swayze, Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribisi, Tony Danza, Jeffrey Tambor, Tyne Daly, Doris Roberts, Anne Archer, Kate Hudson, Kim Cattrall, and Robert Urich, among others. Katselas authored two books: Dreams into Action: Getting What You Want! (1996) and Acting Class: Take a Seat (2008).

Katselas died of heart failure on October 24, 2008, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 74. Actor James Franco portrayed Katselas in the Sal Mineo biopic Sal, which Franco also directed.