Active Years: 1887 — 1995

Position: Director, bookwriter, producer

Career Highlights: On Your Toes, Room Service, The Boys from Syracuse, Pal Joey, On the Town, High Button Shoes, Where’s Charley?, Call Me Madam, Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Once Upon a Mattress, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and many others.

Career Totals: Involved with over 122 productions

Personal Data: Born in Forestville, NY, on June 25, 1887. Before he worked in theater, his jobs included basketball coach, swimming coach, steelworker, Western Union messenger, salesman, and cowboy. He first appeared as an actor on Broadway in 1913, wrote his first Broadway play in 1925, and he directed his first Broadway show in 1926. He died January 31, 1995, still active on Broadway at age 107.

Scouting Report: Mr. Abbott, as he was always known, was one of the greatest directors of classic musical comedy in the history of Broadway. He understood structure, character, and the relationship between dialogue and songs in musical comedy better than almost anyone else. He gave many important talents their starts, and was mentor to great artists like Jerome Robbins and Hal Prince, among others.

Teammates and Contemporaries: Rodgers & Hart, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse, Stephen Sondheim, Kander & Ebb, Comden & Green, Frank Loesser, Hal Prince, Harnick & Bock, Carol Burnett, Nancy Walker, Phil Silvers, Zero Mostel, Gene Kelly, Jule Styne, and others.

Fun Statistic: Even late in life, Abbott indulged his two lifelong non-theater interests — golf and ballroom dancing.