The primary Stages Off-Broadway Oral history Project
Celebrating the visionaries who created New York's vibrant Off- and Off-Off-Broadway theater.
F. Murray Abraham
ActorInterviewed on: Friday, March 29, 2024
Location: at Casey Childs' Apartment
Interviewed by: Casey Childs
Interview #205
Video Length: 11 Minutes, 49 Seconds
Video Length: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
F. Murray Abraham is an actor on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Television and Film. Off-Broadway his shows include THE FANTASTICKS (1960), YOUNG ABE LINCOLN (1961), LITTLE MURDERS (1969), ADAPTATION/NEXT (1969), TONIGHT IN LIVING COLOR (1969), THE SURVIVAL OF ST. JOAN (1971), BAD HABITS (1974), SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO/THE DUCK VARIATIONS (1976), LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY (1977), THE ANNUAL SEDUCTION OF EMERSON FITZGERALD McWAD (1978), THE MASTER AND MARGARITA (1978), THE SEAGULL (1980), THE CARETAKER (1982), ANTIGONE (1982), THE GOLEM (1984), UNCLE VANYA (1984), THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT (1985), TWELFTH NIGHT OR WHAT YOU WILL (1986), A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (1987), WAITING FOR GODOT (1988), KING LEAR (1991), A LIFE IN THE THEATRE (1992), TRUMBO: RED, WHITE AND BLACKLISTED (2003), AN OAK TREE (2006), THE JEW OF MALTA (2007) THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2007), ALMOST AN EVENING (2008), OFFICES (2009), GALILEO (2012), GOLDEN AGE (2012), THREEPENNY OPERA (2014), WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT (2016), NATHAN THE WISE (2016), GOOD FOR OTTO (2018). On Broadway his shows include Man in a Glass Booth, The Ritz, Bad Habits, Tiebele and Her Demon, Angels in America, Triumph of Love, It’s Only a Play. His films include Amadeus, Scarface, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Star Trek: Insurrection, Marco Polo, All the President’s Men, Too Much Romance…It’s Time For Stuffed Peppers, and Inside Llewyn Davis. His TV credits include White Lotus, Mythic Quest, Homeland, Moon Knight, and All in the Family.
F. Murray Abraham grew up in El Paso, Texas speaking Spanish with his Mexican neighbors. His parents were children of coal miners and steel workers from the east coast. His father was a mechanic in a garage, and Abraham worked with him. Looking for an ‘easy class’ to get out of high school as fast as he could he signed up for Speech and Drama. The teacher, Lucia P. Hutchins, had him audition for a play, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals by J. M. Barrie and he never looked back. The play toured winning him a scholarship to college, the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas at Austin. He decided he was an actor and went to Los Angeles, got rid of his Texas accent by listening to records of John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, and performed in Ray Bradbury’s Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (1958). He met his wife, actress Kate Hannan, there and they moved to New York City. Abraham studied with Uta Hagen. His first money made was as a Macy’s Santa, building sets for Manhattan School of Music, performing Off-Off- Broadway for The No Smoking Playhouse, TheaterWorksUSA, Time and Space LTD, Off Center Theatre, then on to Off-Broadway with Circle in the Square, Manhattan Theatre Club, CSC, NYSF/The Public, La Mama, Lincoln Center, and many more. Abraham’s first Broadway show Man in a Glass Booth began a lifelong friendship with Harold Pinter and his role in WHERE HAS TOMMY FLOWERS GONE? (1971) introduced him to Terrence McNally who went on to write FRANKIE AND JOHNNY AT THE CLAIR DE LUNE (1987) for him. In 1984 his performance in the movie Amadeus won a BAFTA, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and an Academy Award for Best Actor as Antonio Salieri. He won two Obies for Sustained Excellence of Performance in Chekhov’s UNCLE VANYA (1984) and Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE(2011); a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Broadway) in Terrence McNally’s It’s Only a Play (1914); and the Moscow Art Theatre’s Stanislavsky Award.
Mentioned in Interview
Robert K. Adams, Woody Allen, Alan Arkin, Philip Bosco, Ray Bradbury, Claudia Bruce, Betty Buckley, Joe Chaikin, Ethan Coen, James Coco, Tim Crouch, Brian De Palma, Kathryn Dowling, Robert Dreyfuss, Susan Egan, Richard Foreman, Milos Forman, John Guare, Uta Hagen, Jay Harnick, Lucas Haas, Charles Hull, Brian Kulick, Bill Irwin, Tony Kushner, Nathan Lane, Wilford Leach, David Mamet, Steve Martin, Elaine May, Abigail McGrath, Tony McGrath, Terrence McNally, Linda Mussman, Cynthia Nixon, Jack O’Brien, Tom O’Horgan, Nancy Opel, Jerry Orbach, Al Pacino, Geraldine Page, Joseph Papp, Harold Pinter, Donald Pleasence, David Rabe, George Wolfe Reily, Doris Roberts, Andre Serban, Dalton Trumbo, Christopher Walken, Robin Williams, George C. Wolfe, Actors’ Playhouse, American Repertory Theater, Anderson Theatre, Astor Place Theatre, Atlantic Theater Company, Barrow Street Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Circle in the Square, CSC Theatre, The Duke on 42nd Street, Eastside Playhouse, Greenwich Mews Theater, Jewish Repertory Theater, La Mama E.T.C., The No Smoking Playhouse, NYSF/The Public, Off Center Theater, Roundabout Theatre, Signature Theatre, Sullivan Street Playhouse, TheatreWorksUSA, Theatre at 45 Bleecker, Theatre at St. Peter’s Church, Time and Space LTD, Westside Theatre, ADAPTATION/NEXT, ALMOST AN EVENING, AN OAK TREE, THE ANNUAL SEDUCTION OF EMERSON FITZGERALD MCWAD, ANTIGONE, APPLEMAN: BITING THE APPLE, BAD HABITS, THE CARETAKER, CINDERELLA, DON’T DRINK THE WATER, THE FANTASTICKS, FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKIE AND JOHNNY AT THE CLAIR DE LUNE, GALILEO, GIORDANO BRUNO, GOLDEN AGE, THE GOLEM, GOOD FOR OTTO, THE JEW OF MALTA, KING LEAR, LANDSCAPE OF THE BODY, A LIFE IN THE THEATRE, LITTLE MURDERS, THE MADWOMAN OF CHAILLOT, THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, NATHAN THE WISE, OFFICES, THE SEAGULL, SEXUALITY PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO/THE DUCK VARIATIONS, THE SURVIVAL OF SAINT JOAN, THREEPENNY OPERA, TONIGHT IN LIVING COLOR, TRUMBO: RED, WHITE AND BLACKLISTED, TWELFTH NIGHT OR WHAT YOU WILL, UNCLE VANYA, YOUNG ABE LINCOLN, WAITING FOR GODOT, WHERE HAS TOMMY FLOWERS GONE?, WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT.