Person Biography:
Elaine May is an American actress, comedian, film director, playwright, and screenwriter born in 1932 in Philadelphia. She began her professional career in the 1950s and is still active in the entertainment industry. May is best known for directing the Cold War-themed action comedy "Ishtar" (1987),which received a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director, but also has a loyal fan base.
May's early life was marked by her family's involvement in the theater. Her parents were both actors, and her father, Jack Berlin, was a theater director who led his own traveling Yiddish theater company. May made her stage debut at the age of 3 and continued to work with her father's company, touring extensively and changing schools frequently. Despite her love of reading, May reportedly hated school and was eventually left in the custody of her mother after her father's death.
May's career as a child actress ended, and she moved to Los Angeles with her mother. She married her first husband, Marvin May, at the age of 16 and had a daughter, Jeannie Berlin, in 1949. The couple separated in 1950, and May received a divorce in 1960. She began supporting herself through odd jobs and eventually attended the University of Chicago, where she met aspiring actor Mike Nichols.
May's breakthrough came when she became one of the charter members of the Compass Players, a Chicago-based improvisational theater group. She and Nichols formed a working partnership, developing improvised comedy sketches and eventually leaving the group to form their own stand-up comedy team, "Nichols and May." The duo made their Broadway debut in 1960 and won a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album in 1962.
May's success with "Nichols and May" led her to pursue a career as a playwright and director. Her most successful play was "Adaptation" (1969),which she also directed and won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director. May made her film debut as a director with the black comedy "A New Leaf" (1971),which was praised by critics and nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.
May's subsequent films, including "The Heartbreak Kid" (1972) and "Mikey and Nicky" (1976),received mixed reviews, and she was effectively blacklisted after a dispute with Paramount Pictures. She refocused on screenwriting and found success with the script for the fantasy-comedy "Heaven Can Wait" (1978),which earned an Academy Award nomination.
May's comeback as a director came with the action comedy "Ishtar" (1987),which was widely panned but also has a loyal fan base. She continued to work as a screenwriter, finding success with the comedy film "The Birdcage" (1996) and the political film "Primary Colors" (1998). May largely retired from screenwriting in the 2000s but made a comeback as an actress in the crime-comedy "Small Time Crooks" (2000).
In 2016, May joined the cast of the television mini-series "Crisis in Six Scenes" and made a theatrical comeback in a revival of the play "The Waverly Gallery" (2000) in 2018. For her role in the play, May won the 2019 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play at the age of 87, making her the second-oldest winner of a Tony Award for acting. As of 2021, May is 89 years old and reportedly plans to direct another film.
