Robert Schnitzer

Robert C. Schnitzer, born September 8, 1906, in New York City, was an American actor, producer, educator, and theater administrator whose career spanned more than seven decades. He died on January 2, 2008, at a nursing home in Stamford, Connecticut, at the age of 101. At the time of his death, he held the distinction of being the oldest surviving member of the Philolexian Society of Columbia University.

Schnitzer received his early education at Horace Mann School before going on to Columbia College. His Broadway career ran from 1927 to 1932 and included appearances in Electra and The Brothers Karamazoff. During his years as a young actor in New York City, he was also involved in productions of Hamlet, An Enemy of the People, Richelieu, Henry V, Richard III, Caponsacchi, Macbeth, and Cyrano de Bergerac, either as a performer or in a managerial capacity.

From 1936 to 1939, Schnitzer served as Delaware's State Director and deputy director of the Federal Theatre Project under the WPA. In 1960, he became general manager of the American Repertory Company, an organization established by the Theatre Guild at the request of the U.S. Government to present American theater abroad. In that role, he coordinated a 1961 tour of 28 countries across Europe and South America featuring three productions — The Skin of Our Teeth, The Miracle Worker, and The Glass Menagerie — with a company that included actress Helen Hayes.

Schnitzer held faculty positions at Vassar, Smith, Columbia, and the University of Michigan, where he chaired the theater department. During the 1970s he led the University of Michigan's Professional Theatre Program. He and his wife, actress Marcella Cisney, conducted play readings and organized seminars together during the 1980s. Cisney, who appeared in several films including Hard, Fast and Beautiful, died in 1989.

A longtime resident of Weston, Connecticut, Schnitzer was active in the Westport-Weston Arts Council and later the Westport Arts Center. He also served for many years on the board of directors of the Players Club.