Morton Gottlieb

Morton Edgar Gottlieb (May 2, 1921 – June 25, 2009) was an American producer of Broadway theatre whose play Sleuth won the Tony Award for Best Play in 1971, in addition to three of his other plays that were nominated for the same award.

Born in Brooklyn on May 2, 1921, Gottlieb attended Erasmus Hall High School and majored in drama at Yale University. Gottlieb got a job with Columbia Pictures after graduating from Yale in 1941. He later became a press agent for actress Gertrude Lawrence. She, in turn, introduced him to producer Gilbert Miller, for whom he worked as a general manager. His initial stage-related work was as company manager or general manager, and his first production role was for a production of Arms and the Man in 1953 that featured Marlon Brando in his last stage role.

His 1963 production of Joseph Stein's comedy Enter Laughing launched Alan Arkin to fame and ran for 419 performances into the following year. The 1966 Broadway production of the play The Killing of Sister George by Frank Marcus and the 1969 comedy Lovers by Brian Friel and starring Art Carney, were both nominated as Tony Award for Best Play.

Gottlieb achieved theatrical success with the 1970 thriller Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer that ran for three years, winning that year's Tony Award for Best Play. A film adaptation of the play, starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz debuted in 1972, while the show was still running on Broadway.

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