Oscar Serlin

Oscar Serlin (January 30, 1901 – February 27, 1971) was a Broadway performer and producer born in the Grodno Region of Russian Poland. He emigrated to the United States at the age of nine and later settled in Chicago, where he attended DePaul University. He graduated from DePaul in 1926, during which time he also played football for the university.

Serlin made his Broadway performing debut in 1929, appearing in the play The Jade God. He subsequently transitioned into producing, a role for which he became far better known. His most celebrated production was Life with Father, which opened in 1939 and went on to become the longest-running Broadway show of its time. The production continues to hold the record as the longest-running non-musical in Broadway history.

Beyond Life with Father, Serlin produced several other Broadway works across the 1940s. In 1942 he brought The Moon is Down to the stage, a production drawn from the novel by John Steinbeck, as well as Strip for Action that same year. In 1943 he produced The Family, based on a novel by Antonina Riasanovsky, and in 1948 he produced Life with Mother. While Life with Father stood as his defining achievement, a number of his other productions had comparatively brief runs. Serlin retired from producing in 1951.

He died in New York City on February 27, 1971, following a prolonged illness. His papers from the 1890s through the 1960s are held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.