{"id":496395,"date":"2026-10-15T00:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496395\/"},"modified":"2026-10-15T00:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T00:58:10","slug":"alan-mandell-appreciation-the-heart-of-l-a-theater-and-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/496395\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Mandell appreciation: The heart of L.A. theater and a friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s hard to describe the magnitude of the loss of Alan Mandell, an actor whose legacy extends beyond the memory of his many fine performances on our stages. For decades, he was, quite simply and quite profoundly, the heart of Los Angeles\u2019 theater community.<\/p>\n

Mandell, who died Tuesday at his home in Westwood at 98, made the most of his golden years, which was the period of his life when I knew him, first as someone who wrote about him and later, after he entered what was an extraordinarily active period of retirement, as the recipient of his warm friendship.<\/p>\n

During COVID, he and his great friend, Phyllis Moberly, who had left her post at Center Theatre Group\u2019s publicity department, drove by my home to sing \u201cHappy Birthday,\u201d knowing that I was suffering, as all of us were, from the alienation of those social-distancing times.<\/p>\n

Mandell was a gatherer, someone who brought people together. His compact, architecturally stunning house, the home he downsized to from the Brentwood property where he raised his family, was a showcase for his dazzling art collection. It was also a meeting place for show people and anyone committed to the theater\u2019s long-term flourishing. <\/p>\n

He was a philanthropist, with a discerning eye for talent. He didn\u2019t talk much to me about this activity, but I learned about it from artists who had benefited from his support and knew that there were plenty of theater folks vying to be on the receiving end of his beneficence.<\/p>\n

Mandell\u2019s wife, Elizabeth Heller Mandell<\/a>, a gallery owner, nonprofit consultant and arts patron from a prominent California family, predeceased him, leaving him in a position to extend her philanthropic work. But I don\u2019t think he thought of it as work. Rather, it was an act of cultural community, pursued with unusual intelligence, judgment and taste.<\/p>\n

\"Alan <\/p>\n

Alan Mandell plays Gregory Solomon in Arthur Miller\u2019s \u201cThe Price\u201d at the Mark Taper Forum at the L.A. Music Center on Feb. 10, 2015. <\/p>\n

(Lawrence K. Ho \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

I interviewed Mandell<\/a>, whom I first saw on stage in the 2006 Mark Taper Forum revival of Anton Chekhov\u2019s \u201cThe Cherry Orchard,\u201d<\/a> when he was in rehearsals for Arthur Miller\u2019s \u201cThe Price\u201d <\/a>at the Taper in 2015. He was playing Gregory Solomon, in what he said would likely be his last stage role. He joked that he was two years younger than the 89-year-old character and hoped that the Taper had \u201ca good makeup person.\u201d<\/p>\n

After showing me around the work of art that was his Westwood home, he gave me a guided tour of his life and career. Born in Canada in 1927, Mandell was a child of the Great Depression. He discovered his calling as a schoolboy in Toronto, but he would wear many hats in the theater before he was in a position to dedicate himself wholly to acting.<\/p>\n

His big adult break happened when visiting his sister in San Francisco in 1954. Looking for a place to work on scenes with other actors, he discovered the newly formed San Francisco Actor\u2019s Workshop, the experimental company founded by Herbert Blau and Jules Irving that at that point was housed in a converted garage.<\/p>\n

Eventually, after proving himself indispensable, Mandell would be appointed business manager. The theater quickly turned into a West Coast powerhouse, producing trailblazing work, including the plays of Brecht, Beckett and Pinter. A lifelong love affair was ignited with Beckett, leading Mandell to co-found the San Quentin Drama Workshop with Rick Cluchey<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"Alan <\/p>\n

Alan Mandell, left, and Barry McGovern, two distinguished interpreters of Samuel Beckett, perform in the playwright\u2019s \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d at the Taper in 2012.<\/p>\n

(Michael Robinson Chavez \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Beckett was the cornerstone of their work in the prison, and it was through Cluchey that Mandell formed a relationship with the Irish writer, who directed him in \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d and \u201cEndgame\u201d in Europe. It was an artistic connection that would transform Mandell\u2019s life and work. <\/p>\n

Signs of this history were on display amid all the adventurous modern art that made Mandell\u2019s home seem like an elegant, circus-like wonderland. A photo of Beckett greeted visitors on their way to the bathroom, where a Certificate of Appreciation from the California State Prison hung discreetly on the way. <\/p>\n

The commendation thanked Mandell for making the San Quentin Drama Workshop \u201cthe dedicated and creative community that it is today\u201d and acknowledged his \u201cprofessionalism and broad humanity\u201d \u2014 qualities that anyone who has ever spent any time with Mandell would know aren\u2019t empty words.<\/p>\n

When Blau and Irving left to run the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, Mandell joined them as their general manager. After that chapter ended, he came to L.A. to assist Irving, who was working as a producer on the 1976 TV film version of \u201cDark Victory,\u201d and made the city his home. <\/p>\n

Following his wife\u2019s advice, he decided to prioritize acting. He limited his arts administration work to that of \u201cconsultant director,\u201d a title he held at Los Angeles Actors\u2019 Theatre and Los Angeles Theatre Center, where he inaugurated the Poetry Literary Series. Acting was his guiding passion, but his deep love for the avant-garde helped till the ground for the city\u2019s theatrical renaissance that the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival catalyzed. <\/p>\n

Mandell defied pigeonholing throughout his life. He put the lie to the idea that actors only act and administrators only administrate. He also proved that a performer\u2019s best can come in the autumn and winter of their careers. (Even after he supposedly retired, he was popping up in a Taylor Mac extravaganza, working on a pilot project with the great Norman Lear and making a podcast series with John Cameron Mitchell.) <\/p>\n

\"Rebecca <\/p>\n

Rebecca Mozo and Alan Mandell star in the Colony Theatre Company\u2019s production of \u201cTrying\u201d in Burbank in 2007.<\/p>\n

(Michael Lamont)<\/p>\n

At 79, he was just hitting his prime, playing a crotchety 81-year-old former Nuremberg judge in Joanna McClelland Glass\u2019 \u201cTrying\u201d <\/a>at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. F. Kathleen Foley described Mandell\u2019s portrayal in The Times as \u201ca marvel \u2014 one of the five best performances you will see in this lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron Watson, who directed \u201cTrying\u201d at the Colony, shared in an email his thoughts on what set Mandell apart as an actor: \u201cAlan works with great precision. He also works from a place of great truth. Every moment he crafted was specific, intentional, and purposeful, yet he grounded it all in staggering honesty. His acting became invisible. He simply existed. Add to that Alan\u2019s wry, wicked sense of humor and his whip-smart charm, and you get an experience of a lifetime working with a master of the craft. I was the lucky one.\u201d<\/p>\n

My memories of Mandell return to Beckett, to his performance as Estragon opposite Irish actor Barry McGovern\u2019s Vladimir in the 2012 Mark Taper Forum revival of \u201cWaiting for Godot<\/a>,\u201d directed by Michael Arabian. These two Beckett veterans endowed the physical comedy with lyrical moonlight in a production that glowed with hard-earned existential truth. <\/p>\n

Mandell never let his artistic seriousness stand in the way of his silliness. Indeed, his philosophical and playful sides nourished each other, just as they did for Beckett.<\/p>\n

His eye for visual art was matched by his ear for music, another quality of Beckett\u2019s that he shared. Yes, he could even sing. And until advanced age intervened, tap-dancing was his preferred form of exercise. <\/p>\n

Mandell was himself an embodiment of the \u201cGesamtkunstwerk,\u201d the Wagnerian ideal of the integrated art work. He was open to the serendipitous interplay of interdisciplinary influences because he recognized that artistic freedom isn\u2019t born out of chaos but rather is the product of discrete and highly disciplined forms.<\/p>\n

In his friendships, Mandell imposed a restraint that made possible the free flow of emotional generosity. There was no unseemly sharing or intrusive questioning in the meals I had him with over the years. But I nonetheless felt more deeply known after each encounter and more grateful for the time spent in his gracious company. <\/p>\n

\"From <\/p>\n

From left, Charlotte Rae, James Greene and Alan Mandell perform in \u201cEndgame\u201d in 2026 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Mandell directed the production of Beckett\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

(Craig Schwartz \/ Center Theatre Group)<\/p>\n

It turned out that \u201cThe Price\u201d wasn\u2019t his last stage appearance. The following year he directed and starred in a revival of Beckett\u2019s \u201cEndgame\u201d <\/a>at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, playing Hamm opposite the Clov of his wily Beckett partner, McGovern.<\/p>\n

Actor John Sloan, who served as assistant director on \u201cEndgame\u201d and appeared on stage with him in Pinter\u2019s \u201cNo Man\u2019s Land\u201d <\/a>at the Odyssey, recalled in an email what made Mandell such a special collaborator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved working with Alan because he reminded me of the fun to be had in challenging conventions and making mischief,\u201d Sloane wrote. \u201cThere was almost a twinkle in the eye of all these tyrannical characters he so excelled at playing. By bringing the work of Reza Abdoh and Samuel Beckett to Los Angeles stages, he makes sure we don\u2019t get too comfortable. Of course, he does it all in the sweetest way \u2014 it\u2019s really Alan who has the twinkle in his eye that shines brightest when he\u2019s stirring things up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the cast of that production \u2014 a rare opportunity to see this difficult and daring modern classic at a prominent local venue \u2014 was his great friend Charlotte Rae, an accomplished Beckett veteran herself, who was 90 when she lowered herself into a trash can to play Nell opposite James Greene\u2019s similarly binned Nagg.<\/p>\n

I visited Mandell at his home on Monday. He was unable to speak many words, but he listened with rapt attention to the conversation of the few theater friends who had gathered around his bed. I couldn\u2019t help noticing that he looked like a figure in a Beckett play. It was Mandell\u2019s performances that helped me see the realism \u2014 the radical human vulnerability \u2014 amid the absurdity of \u201cWaiting for Godot\u201d and \u201cEndgame.\u201d <\/p>\n

As I said goodbye, he made a writing gesture to me, as if to say, \u201cContinue doing what you do.\u201d And how could I do otherwise with the grace notes of his art right before me when I close my eyes? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s hard to describe the magnitude of the loss of Alan Mandell, an actor whose legacy extends beyond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1872,165286,82337,57941,8268,143581,1073,192871,48,52,51,1637,47,50,49,63,192868,192869,192872,192870,8843],"class_list":["post-496395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-actor","tag-alan","tag-beckett","tag-endgame","tag-eye","tag-good-performance","tag-home","tag-jules-irving","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-life","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-mandell","tag-philanthropic-work","tag-social-distancing-time","tag-theater-community","tag-way"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}