Brief Biography
Born: July 14, 1915
Died: February 29, 2004

“Jerome Lawrence Interview.”  Interview by Mike Wood.  Camera by Rich Wood.  Edit by Steve Worley.  June 27, 1988.  Malibu, California.  Site hosted by The William Inge Center for the Arts.  Video hosted by Wichita State University.  

Jerome Lawrence is a playwright, director, teacher and statesman in the living theatre. With his collaborator Robert E. Lee, he wrote Inherit the Wind (1955), Auntie Mame (1956), The Gang's All Here (1959), Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Jabberwock (1972), and First Monday in October (1980). Cleveland-born, Lawrence was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio State University and earned a Doctor of Humane Letters degree in 1963. Fairleigh Dickinson University honored him as Doctor of Literature in 1968 and Villanova with a Doctor of Fine Arts Award. In broadcasting, Lawrence and Lee twice won the Peabody Award. Their plays have won a wide spectrum of awards, both here and abroad.