Herman Shumlin

Herman Shumlin (December 6, 1898, Atwood, Colorado – June 4, 1979, New York City) was a prolific Broadway theatrical director and theatrical producer, beginning in 1927 with the play Celebrity and continuing through 1974 with a short run of As You Like It, notably with an all-male cast. He also directed two movies, including Watch on the Rhine (1943), which he had first directed and produced on Broadway in 1941.

During a Broadway career lasting 47 years, he was the director, producer, or both, of 45 productions, including three separate productions of The Corn Is Green (1940, 1943, and 1950). Other productions include The Little Foxes (1939), Watch on the Rhine (1941), and Inherit the Wind (1955). Inherit the Wind ran for 806 performances, and was made into a movie in 1960 starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, and Gene Kelly, and has been remade three times since, in 1965, 1988, and 1999.

Shumlin taught directing in the Theater Department of The City College of New York in the 1960s and 1970s. As well as Watch on the Rhine, he directed the movie Confidential Agent (1945).