John A. Willis
Encyclopedia
John Alvin Willis was an American
theatre and film book editor, theatre awards producer, actor, and educator. He is best known for editing the long-running annual publications Theatre World
and Screen World.
. He earned an undergraduate degree in English from Milligan College
, and did graduate work at Harvard University
, Indiana University
, and the University of Tennessee
. During World War II
, he served in the United States Naval Reserve in the South Pacific
. Mr. Willis was an English teacher with New York Public School System
for over twenty years and is now retired. He has been a member of Actors Equity Association for over fifty years.
Willis was widely regarded as one of the most important theatre and film historians of the twentieth century.
Willis died at age 93 on June 25, 2010, in his Manhattan
home.
, Off-Off-Broadway
, and regional theatre seasons, major theatrical awards, obituaries, and the longest Broadway and Off-Broadway runs, among other categories. Ben Hodges is the current editor of Theatre World.
and Marlon Brando
. Over the years, Mr. Willis has regularly overseen and attended the ceremonies, and personally presented the Debut Award to such diverse talents as Warren Beatty
, Jennifer Holliday
, and John Leguizamo
. As such, Willis has long provided encouragement to newcomers in a challenging industry. As the Theatre World Award is often the very first professional award for most honorees, the New York theatre community holds it in high regard.
Willis was instrumental in the establishment of TWA's nonprofit status in 1997. The awards are currently chosen by a committee of New York Drama Critics and hosted by Peter Filichia
.
. It includes obituaries, Academy Award nominees and winners. Barry Monush is the current editor.
and Vanity Fair
have used his photographs for tributes and articles. He has also been responsible for many annual deposits of his collected photographs and statistical information on films to the Institute of the American Musical, in Los Angeles, California.
for “Excellence in the Theatre” and the 2003 Broadway Theatre Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, in addition to having received a Drama Desk Award
, a Lucille Lortel Award, and the National Board of Review
William K. Everson Award, as well awards from Marquis Who’s Who Publications Board, in which he has been consistently listed among luminaries in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Entertainment, and Who's Who in the East, for well over twenty years. He served on the nominating committees for the Tony Awards and the New York University Hall of Fame, and is currently on the national board of the University of Tennessee
Clarence Brown Theatre. In 2007, he was honored by his alma mater, Milligan College, when they dedicated the John Willis Wing of the new Gregory Center for Liberal Arts.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatre and film book editor, theatre awards producer, actor, and educator. He is best known for editing the long-running annual publications Theatre World
Theatre World
Theatre World is the oldest , pictorial and statistical record of American theatre, including Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional theatre, as well as a complete national theatrical awards section and obituaries...
and Screen World.
Personal life
Mr. Willis was originally from Morristown, TennesseeMorristown, Tennessee
Morristown is a city in, and the county seat of, Hamblen County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 29,137 at the 2010 United States Census. It is the principal city of the Morristown, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Grainger, Hamblen and Jefferson counties...
. He earned an undergraduate degree in English from Milligan College
Milligan College
Milligan College is a Christian liberal arts college founded in 1866 and located immediately outside of Elizabethton in Carter County, Tennessee, United States. The school has a student population of just over 1,100 students as well as a campus that is located just minutes from downtown Johnson City...
, and did graduate work at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, and the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he served in the United States Naval Reserve in the South Pacific
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. Mr. Willis was an English teacher with New York Public School System
New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education is the branch of municipal government in New York City that manages the city's public school system. It is the largest school system in the United States, with over 1.1 million students taught in more than 1,700 separate schools...
for over twenty years and is now retired. He has been a member of Actors Equity Association for over fifty years.
Willis was widely regarded as one of the most important theatre and film historians of the twentieth century.
Willis died at age 93 on June 25, 2010, in his Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
home.
Achievements as an entertainment historian
Willis was editor in chief of both Theatre World and its companion series Screen World for forty-three years. Theatre World and Screen World are the oldest definitive pictorial and statistical records of each American theatrical and foreign and domestic film season, and are referenced daily by industry professionals, students, and historians worldwide.Theatre World
Theatre World, founded in 1945, covers the complete statistical and photographic Broadway, Off-BroadwayOff-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
, Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway
Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theaters are often defined as theaters that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that...
, and regional theatre seasons, major theatrical awards, obituaries, and the longest Broadway and Off-Broadway runs, among other categories. Ben Hodges is the current editor of Theatre World.
Theatre World Awards
Since their establishment in 1945, Mr. Willis presided over the annual Theatre World Awards. The awards hold the distinction of being the first to recognize Outstanding Debut in a Broadway or Off-Broadway Role; the first honorees were Barbara Bel GeddesBarbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...
and Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
. Over the years, Mr. Willis has regularly overseen and attended the ceremonies, and personally presented the Debut Award to such diverse talents as Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Jennifer Holliday
Jennifer Holliday
Jennifer-Yvette Holliday is an African-American singer and Tony Award-winning actress. She started her career on Broadway in musicals such as Dreamgirls, and later became a successful recording artist...
, and John Leguizamo
John Leguizamo
Jonathan Alberto "John" Leguizamo is an Colombian-American actor, producer, voice artist, and comedian.-Early life:...
. As such, Willis has long provided encouragement to newcomers in a challenging industry. As the Theatre World Award is often the very first professional award for most honorees, the New York theatre community holds it in high regard.
Willis was instrumental in the establishment of TWA's nonprofit status in 1997. The awards are currently chosen by a committee of New York Drama Critics and hosted by Peter Filichia
Peter Filichia
Peter Filichia is a New York-based theater critic for The Newark Star Ledger newspaper in New Jersey and New Jersey's television station News 12.In addition, Filichia has two weekly columns at Masterworks Broadway and Kritzerland...
.
Screen World
Screen World, founded in 1949, documents, maintains statistics and includes photographs from almost every film produced and/or released in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It includes obituaries, Academy Award nominees and winners. Barry Monush is the current editor.
Theatre World/Screen World archive
Mr. Willis also founded the Theatre World/Screen World archive, widely considered to be the most complete privately held theatrical pictorial and statistical archive on twentieth century theatre and film, including complete press kits, publicity information, advertisements, all reviews, publicity photographs, and even ticket stubs, from nearly every Broadway and Off-Broadway production between 1950-2000, as well as much of the same from Off-Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions. And because of Mr. Willis’s personal interest in performers, he amassed a collection of tens of thousands of photographs of performers from the twentieth century, many collected directly from the performers themselves, signed, and incredibly rare. Mr. Willis favorably responded to all inquiries for the loan of materials from the archive, and organizations such as the Actors StudioActors Studio
The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947, by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who provided...
and Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
have used his photographs for tributes and articles. He has also been responsible for many annual deposits of his collected photographs and statistical information on films to the Institute of the American Musical, in Los Angeles, California.
Other performing arts publications
Mr. Willis also served as editor of the Dance World and Opera World series, the landmark A Pictorial History of the American Theatre 1860–1985." Previously, he served as assistant to Theatre World founder Daniel Blum on Great Stars of the American Stage, Great Stars of Film, A Pictorial History of the Talkies, A Pictorial History of Television, A Pictorial Treasury of Opera in America" and "A Pictorial History of the Silent Screen.Awards
On behalf of Theatre World and/or Screen World, Mr. Willis received a Special 2001 Tony AwardTony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for “Excellence in the Theatre” and the 2003 Broadway Theatre Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, in addition to having received a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
, a Lucille Lortel Award, and the National Board of Review
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
William K. Everson Award, as well awards from Marquis Who’s Who Publications Board, in which he has been consistently listed among luminaries in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Entertainment, and Who's Who in the East, for well over twenty years. He served on the nominating committees for the Tony Awards and the New York University Hall of Fame, and is currently on the national board of the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
Clarence Brown Theatre. In 2007, he was honored by his alma mater, Milligan College, when they dedicated the John Willis Wing of the new Gregory Center for Liberal Arts.