Hayes Gordon

Hayes Gordon (25 February 1920 – 19 October 1999) was an American-born actor, theatre entrepreneur, producer and director and acting teacher with a considerable career in Australia.

Gordon was born on 25 February 1920, in Boston, Massachusetts^[1] growing up in the tenements there during the 1930s Depression.^[2]

An only child, Gordon helped support his parents financially by teaching at Peabody House, an organisation set up to provide education to poor children and keep them off the streets and out of trouble.^[2]

While at high school, Gordon performed in his first stage roles in amateur Gilbert and Sullivan productions.^[1] After he left high school, Gordon studied pharmacy, while performing variety broadcasts. At the age of 20, he presented his own weekly television series, Hayes Gordon Presents.^[3][1] He also entertained guests at a hotel in New Hampshire.^[1]

Gordon graduated from university with a Bachelor of Science,^[1] after which he went on to work as a control chemist at a food company in New York, and then on to a pharmacy.^[2][4] One day, a customer told him about an audition for a bass baritone. He soon went to work in the theatre^[4] and also undertook voice training.^[1]

In 1942, Gordon joined chorus of the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, performing in vintage musicals, the first being the operetta Naughty Marietta.^[1] After a subsequent performance in The Desert Song, Gordon met its lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein, resulting in a small part in the 1943 premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!^[1]

A few months later, in 1943 Gordon was drafted into the army.^[4] His first service assignment was Moss Hart's musical play Winged Victory, which toured nationally. He then set up a theatre education program for the company, while studying acting under Sanford Meisner at the Neighbourhood Playhouse.^[1]

Gordon continued to appear on Broadway in several musicals, including a 1946 revival of Show Boat, Brigadoon, Sleepy Hollow and the revues Small Wonder and Along Fifth Avenue.^[1] While working on Brigadoon, Gordon began taking acting lessons from Lee Strasberg, the pioneer of method acting. He also appeared in America's first television soap opera Fashion Story, had a radio show called 'Music in the Air', and worked in nightclubs.^[1]

In 1951, Gordon got caught up in Joe McCarthy's campaign, where member of the theatre industry were being scrutinised and named in 'Red Networks', a newsletter which specialised in naming alleged communists and sympathisers. After he refused to sign a loyalty oath declaring that he was not a communist, acting work dried up completely.^[5][1][4]

In 1952, Gordon traveled to Australia to star in J. C. Williamson's musical Kiss Me, Kate,^[6] until 1953. Upon finding out that Gordon had studied with Strasberg, fellow cast member Maggie Fitzgibbon convinced him to give some informal acting lessons.^[4][1] When the tour ended in 1953, Hayes remained in Australia to appear in other productions, including J. C. Williamson's Annie Get Your Gun and Oklahoma!.^[1][2] He also compered the long-running Ford Show variety radio series. From 1955, he played Hajj in Garnet H. Carroll's staging of Kismet, presented the original Late Show television series, and created the afternoon ‘advice’ series, Medico.^[1]

During this time, Gordon was asked to continue teaching J. C. Williamson's company members Strasberg's technique, ‘The Method’, which was based on the teachings of Stanislavsky.^[1][4] He also occasionally taught acting at Doris Fitton's Independent Theatre.^[1] Among Gordon's regular students was Lorraine Bayly. After studying with him for 18 months, Bayly and Gordon formed an acting troupe, together with several other students.^[1][4] Their first performance – a series of short plays by Tennessee Williams, was staged at Cammeray Children’s Library in 1958.^[1] Following the performance, they adopted the name 'Ensemble Theatre Company', on the premise that there would be no 'stars' of the troupe, only the ensemble. Gordon served as artistic director.^[7][8] The company included Reg Livermore, Jon Ewing and Clarissa Kaye, among others and took up residence above a cake shop in North Sydney.^[1][8]

After selling out shows, Gordon relocated the company to a derelict warehouse in Sydney's Kirribilli, which was purchased via fundraising and renovated via voluntary labour from the actors,^[1] cleaning bricks and laying down the bitumen and dyeing hessian sacks, while Gordon worked on the lighting system.^[4] The resulting Ensemble Theatre (Sydney’s first theatre-in-the round) opened in 1960, with a production of Mel Dinelli's The Man,^[1][7][8] starring Jon Ewing in the title role.^[4]

Productions of Orpheus Descending and The Drunkard followed, as did Australian plays.^[1] Gordon directed most of the company’s productions, while running the Ensemble’s drama school. Poetry readings, school presentations and film screenings were also held at the venue.^[1]

From 1966, Gordon directed a series of classic American musicals at Sydney's Menzies Hotel, including Oklahoma!, Kiss Me, Kate, Out of this World, Can-Can, Wonderful Town, Brigadoon and South Pacific.^[1] Performers included the likes of Lorrae Desmond, Judi Farr, Nancye Hayes, Rosina Raisbeck, Reg Evans and Denis Quilley.^[1]

In 1967, J. C. Williamson's persuaded Gordon to return to acting as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney. He stayed with the show for its three-year run and it became the most acclaimed role of his Australian career.^[8][1][2] After this, he performed in a 200th anniversary re-enactment of the landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, an event that was ultimately sabotaged by protesters.^[1]

In 1971, Gordon directed Who Killed Santa Claus? for Williamson’s, and in 1973 he directed The Royal Hunt of the Sun for the Christchurch Arts Festival.^[1] That same year, Ensemble’s drama school transferred to Pitt Street, followed by the Independent Theatre in North Sydney.^[1]

In 1977, Gordon published "Toward an Ethical Theatre".^[9] The following year, he returned to the stage to play Daddy Warbucks with the original Australian cast of Annie, in a touring production with J. C. Williamson's.^[8][1][2]

In 1983, Ensemble Theatre temporarily moved to the Sydney Opera House while a new larger theatre was built in Kirribilli. It opened in 1984 with a staging of The Prisoner of Second Avenue.^[1]

Gordon reprised his role as Tevye in a successful 1985/1986 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, for the Australian Opera.^[8][1][2] He handed over his role as Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre to Sandra Bates in 1986.^[9][4]

Gordon’s final stage appearance was in Broadway Bound for Gary Penny Productions at the Sydney Opera House^[1] in 1988, while his last directorial credit was Jake's Women in 1993.^[8]

In 1992, Gordon published "A Compleat Compendium of Acting and Performing, in Two Parts", which outlined his Stanislavsky-influenced acting methods.^[1][2][10]

• 1997: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day Honours, "In recognition of service to the arts, particularly the acting profession and the theatre and to the community"^[11]
• 1979: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year's Honours, "In recognition of service to the performing arts".^[12]
• 1979: Honoured with a tribute on an episode of This is Your Life.^[1]
• 1999: Glugs Theatrical Awards named one of their awards the 'Hayes Gordon Memorial Award for Important Contribution to Theatre'.^[13]

Gordon married and divorced American music theatre performer Katrina Van Oss in the U.S. In 1972 he married former student Helen Terry, and had one daughter.^[1]

Gordon was a great friend and mentor to Australian actress Denise Roberts, who taught film and television at the Ensemble Studios for Hayes for over six years. In September 2000, Roberts established Screenwise, a Sydney-based film and television school for actors,^[14][15] where she began teaching the Hayes Gordon philosophy for screen acting.

Gordon died on 19 October 1999^[8] in Sydney,^[3] at the age of 79. He was survived by his wife and daughter.^[1]

Source: ^[8]

• Hayes Gordon at the Internet Broadway Database
• Hayes Gordon at IMDb