View source for Robert E. Lee (playwright)

{{short description|American dramatist}}
{{About|the American playwright|other uses|Robert E. Lee (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox writer
| name = Robert Edwin Lee
| image = 
| caption = Lee in 1864
| birth_date = {{Birth_date|1918|10|15}}
| birth_place = [[Elyria, Ohio]], U.S.
| death_date = {{Death_date and age|1994|7|8|1918|10|15}}
| death_place = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], U.S.
| occupation = Playwright, lyricist
| years_active = 1948–1994
| notableworks = ''[[Auntie Mame]]'', ''[[Inherit the Wind (play)|Inherit the Wind]]''
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Janet Waldo]]|1948}}
| children = 2
}}
'''Robert Edwin Lee''' (October 15, 1918 – July 8, 1994) was an American playwright and lyricist. In the early years of [[World War II]], Lee partnered with [[Jerome Lawrence]] to create [[American Forces Network#History|Armed Forces Radio]] while serving together in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]].<ref name="cliffnotes">[https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/i/inherit-the-wind/jerome-lawrence-and-robert-lee-biographies Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee Biographies] [[CliffNotes]]. Retrieved November 6, 2023.</ref> Lawrence and Lee became the most prolific writing partnership in radio, with such long-running series as ''[[Favorite Story]]'' among others.

==Life and career==
Lee was born in [[Elyria, Ohio]], the son of Elvira (née Taft), a teacher, and C. Melvin Lee, an engineer.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/36/Robert-E-Lee.html|title=Robert e. Lee Biography (1918-)}}</ref> He attended [[Ohio Wesleyan University]].<ref name="amgbio"/>

Lawrence and Lee turned to the live theatre in 1955 with ''[[Inherit the Wind (play)|Inherit the Wind]]'', which remains among the most-produced plays in the American theatre. They are also well known for the plays ''[[Auntie Mame]]'' and ''[[First Monday in October]]''. In 1965, Lawrence and Lee founded the American Playwrights' Theatre, a plan to bypass the commerciality of the Broadway stage, which foreshadowed the professional regional theatre movement. Their wildly successful play, ''[[The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail]]'', was produced through the American Playwrights Theatre, and premiered at Lawrence's alma mater, [[Ohio State University]], which also commissioned their play on the life and times of [[James Thurber]], ''[[Jabberwock (play)|Jabberwock]]'' (1972).

In all, they collaborated on 39 works, and, with [[James Hilton (novelist)|James Hilton]], a 1956 musical adaptation of Hilton's novel ''[[Lost Horizon]]'', entitled ''[[Shangri-La (musical)|Shangri-La]]''. They also adapted ''[[Auntie Mame]]'' into the hit musical ''[[Mame (musical)|Mame]]'' with composer [[Jerry Herman]], which won a [[Tony Award]] for its star, [[Angela Lansbury]]. Less successful was the Lawrence and Lee collaboration with Herman, also starring Lansbury, ''[[Dear World]]'', a musical adaptation of [[Jean Giraudoux]]'s ''[[The Madwoman of Chaillot]]''.

Several of Lawrence and Lee's plays draw on events from United States history to speak to contemporary issues. ''[[Inherit the Wind (play)|Inherit the Wind]]'' (1955) addressed [[intellectual freedom]] and [[McCarthyism]] by speaking of a fictionalized [[Scopes Monkey Trial]]. ''The Gang's All Here'' (1959) examined government corruption in the 1920s. ''[[The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail]]'' (1970) was a [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]-era exploration of [[Henry David Thoreau|Thoreau]]'s resistance to an earlier war.<ref name="encyc_modern_drama">{{citation|last=Eisler|first=Garrett B.|title=Lawrence, Jerome (1915–2004), and Robert E. Lee (1918–1994)|encyclopedia=The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama|editor=Gabrielle H. Cody & Evert Sprinchorn|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2007|volume=1|pages=801–802}}</ref>

The Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, a theater research facility and archive was dedicated in Lawrence and Lee's honor at the [[Ohio State University]] in 1986.<ref name="amgbio">Eder, Bruce [https://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:99169 "Robert E. Lee" (Allmovie biography)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703044818/https://www.allmovie.com/artist/p99169|date=July 3, 2019|title=Archive}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Lee was married to actress [[Janet Waldo]] (the voice of many well-known cartoon characters, including Judy Jetson) from 1948 until his death in 1994.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/09/obituaries/robert-e-lee-75-playwright-inherit-the-wind-co-author.html|title = Robert e. Lee, 75, Playwright; 'Inherit the Wind' Co-Author|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 9 July 1994|last1 = Weber|first1 = Bruce}}</ref> Together they had two children, Jonathan Barlow Lee, the production manager for Center Theatre Group's Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and Lucy Lee, who teaches Clinical Management Communication at the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, in Los Angeles.<ref name="nytimes.com"/>

==Death==
Lee died from [[cancer]] on July 8, 1994, in [[Los Angeles, California]], at the age of 75.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> He is buried in [[Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)|Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery]].

==Works (partial)==
*''Look, Ma, I'm Dancin'!'' – 1948 (book of musical)
*''[[Inherit the Wind (play)|Inherit the Wind]]'' – 1955 (play)
*''[[Shangri-La (musical)|Shangri-La]]'' – 1956 (book & lyrics of musical)
*''[[Auntie Mame]]'' – 1956 (play)
*''The Gang's All Here'' – 1959 (play)
*''Only in America'' – 1959 – (play)
*''A Call on Kuprin'' – 1961 – (play)
*''Diamond Orchid'' – 1965 – (play)
*''[[Mame (musical)|Mame]]'' – 1966 – (book of musical based on his play ''Auntie Mame'')
*''[[Dear World]]'' – 1969 (book of musical)
*''[[The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail]]'' – 1970 (play)
*''[[The Incomparable Max]]'' – 1971 (play)
*''[[Jabberwock (play)|Jabberwock]]'' – 1972 (play)
*Blackbeard The Pirate- 1974 (book)
*''[[First Monday in October]]'' – 1978 – (play)

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Wikiversity|Collaborative_play_writing}}
* {{IBDB name}}
* {{IMDb name|0498126}}
* {{Tcmdb name}}
* {{Find a Grave|11082669}}
* [http://archives.nypl.org/the/21482  Lawrence and Lee papers, 1917-1974], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]]
*[https://library.osu.edu/finding-aids/ead/TRI/SPEC.TRI.L%26L.xml Guide to the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Collection, circa 1800-1803, 1831-2003 SPEC.TRI.L&L] held by the Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute, The Ohio State University Libraries.

{{Lawrence and Lee}}
{{Valentine Davies Award}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Robert Edwin}}
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:American lyricists]]
[[Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in California]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Ohio]]
[[Category:Northwestern University alumni]]
[[Category:Ohio Wesleyan University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Elyria, Ohio]]
[[Category:Songwriters from Ohio]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Writers from Ohio]]
[[Category:20th-century American songwriters]]