Joel Grey

Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz; April 11, 1932) is an American actor, singer, dancer, photographer, and theatre director. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in the musical Cabaret on Broadway and in Bob Fosse's 1972 film adaptation. He has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award for his performances in the Cabaret stage musical and film. He earned the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award at the 76th Tony Awards in 2023.
Grey's Tony-nominated roles include for the musical George M! (1968), Goodtime Charley (1975), and The Grand Tour (1979). After portraying Amos Hart in the Broadway revival of Chicago (1996), he originated the role of the Wizard of Oz in the musical Wicked (2003) and played Moonface Martin in the 2011 revival of Anything Goes. He co-directed the 2011 revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart with George C. Wolfe, earning a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play at the 65th Tony Awards.
He earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture nomination for his role in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) at the 43rd Golden Globe Awards. His other film roles include in Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), Kafka (1991), The Music of Chance (1993), The Fantasticks (2000), and Dancer in the Dark (2000). He earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards for Brooklyn Bridge (1993). He also acted in Oz (2003), Alias (2005), House (2006), Nurse Jackie (2011), and The Old Man (2022).
Joel Grey was born Joel Katz in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Goldie "Grace" (née Epstein) and Mickey Katz, an actor, comedian, and musician. Both his parents were Jewish. He attended Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles, California.
Grey started his career, at age 10, in the Cleveland Play House's Curtain Pullers children's theatre program in the early 1940s, appearing in productions such as Grandmother Slyboots, Jack of Tarts and a lead role in their mainstage production of On Borrowed Time. By 1952, at age 20, he was appearing as a featured performer at the Copacabana nightclub in New York. He changed his last name from Katz to Grey early in his career due to the stigma associated with having a surname with an obvious ethnicity attached. Grey made his Broadway acting debut in Borscht Capades where he was credited as "Joel Kaye". He returned to Broadway in The Littlest Revue in 1956 and acted as a replacement in Neil Simon's Come Blow Your Horn in 1961 and the musicals Stop the World – I Want to Get Off in 1962, and Half a Sixpence in 1965.
He started his professional television career on The Colgate Comedy Hour from 1951 to 1954. He then took on roles in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Grey appeared in several TV westerns including Maverick (1959), Bronco (1960) and Lawman (3 times in 1960 and 1961).
Grey gained his breakthrough performance originating the role of the Master of ceremonies in the Broadway musical Cabaret by John Kander and Fred Ebb in 1966. He received raves for his role as the malevolent and sinister emcee of the Kit Kat Club. He won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical at the 21st Tony Awards.
Grey appeared as a panelist for the television game show What's My Line? in the 1967 season, as well as being the first Mystery Guest during its syndication in 1968. His followup role on Broadway was as George M. Cohan in the 1968 musical George M!. Grey was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical at the 23rd Tony Awards and received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance.
Grey reprised his role as the Master of ceremonies in the 1972 Bob Fosse directed film version of Cabaret. Fosse, who was hired to direct the film version because Harold Prince was unavailable, wanted to recast the MC role, but the studio insisted on Grey. Fosse backed down on his "It's either me or Joel" threat, but relations between them were cool. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 45th Academy Awards in March 1973 for his performance. His victory was part of a Cabaret near-sweep, which saw Liza Minnelli win Best Actress and Fosse win Best Director, although it lost the Best Picture Oscar to The Godfather. For that role, Grey also won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the 26th British Academy Film Awards and Best Supporting Actor awards from the Golden Globes, Kansas City Film Critics Circle, National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, National Society of Film Critics, and a Tony Award for his original stage performance six years prior, making him one of only ten people who have won both a Tony Award and an Academy Award for the same role.
He was the guest star for the first episode of The Muppet Show in its first season in 1976, singing "Razzle Dazzle" from Chicago and "Willkommen" from Cabaret. He has performed at The Muny in St. Louis, Missouri, in roles such as George M. Cohan in George M! (1970 and 1992), the Emcee in Cabaret (1971), and Joey Evans in Pal Joey (1983). At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Grey played the title role of Mikhail Platonov in their production of Platonov (1977). He returned to Broadway in the play Goodtime Charley (1975), and the musical The Grand Tour (1979), receiving Tony nominations for each.
He also played Master of Sinanju Chiun, Remo Williams (Fred Ward)'s elderly Korean martial arts master in the movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985), a role that garnered him a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor at the 13th Saturn Awards and a second Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture at the 43rd Golden Globe Awards. Grey's character Chiun was popular for the lines "Meat of cow kills", and "You move like a pregnant yak", from the movie. He then acted in Steven Soderbergh's mystery thriller Kafka (1991), starring Jeremy Irons, Theresa Russell and Ian Holm. In 1991, he played Adam, a devil, in "Conundrum", a two-part season 14 episode and the series finale of the television series Dallas (1991). That same year, Grey also appeared in the American Repertory Theater's production of When We Dead Awaken at the São Paulo Biennial.
He narrated the animated film Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992), and made a cameo appearance as himself in the Robert Altman film The Player (1992). The following year he starred in the Philip Haas drama film The Music of Chance (1993) alongside James Spader, Mandy Patinkin, M. Emmet Walsh, and Charles Durning. The film premiered at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Later that year he starred in New York Stage and Film's production of John Patrick Shanley's A Fool and Her Fortune and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards for his recurring role as Jacob Prossman on the television series Brooklyn Bridge. In 1995, he made a guest appearance on the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Resistance" as Caylem, an aging rebel seeking to free his (deceased) wife from prison. In November 1995, he performed as the Wizard of Oz in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True, a staged concert of the popular story at Lincoln Center to benefit the Children's Defense Fund. The performance was originally broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT) in November 1995, and released on CD and video in 1996.
He returned to Broadway as Amos Hart in the revival of the Bob Fosse musical Chicago (1996). Set in Chicago in the Jazz Age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same title by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal". The revival was well received and Grey earned the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical. In 1999, he starred in Brian Friel's Give Me Your Answer, Do! mounted by Roundabout Theatre Company.
In 2000, Grey played Oldrich Novy in the Lars von Trier film Dancer in the Dark and acted in the musical film The Fantasticks and in the dark comedy Choke (2008). During this time he also appeared extensively on television. He had a recurring role as the evil reptilian demon Doc in The WB horror series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2001), Lemuel Idzik in the HBO prison drama Oz (2003) and as Another Mr. Sloane in the ABC series Alias (2005). He played Milton Winters, a wealthy, paroled ex-convict on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (episode "Cuba Libre", 2003). He also appeared on the shows House and Brothers & Sisters (2007), on the latter of which he played the role of Dr. Bar-Shalom, Sarah Walker (Rachel Griffiths) and Joe Whedon (John Pyper-Ferguson)'s marriage counselor. He appeared as Dr. Singer, Dr. Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl)'s high school teacher who needs treatment for dementia in Grey's Anatomy (2009).
Grey originated the role of the Wizard of Oz in the Stephen Schwartz Broadway musical Wicked. Grey took over the role from Robert Morse who previously played the Wizard in the San Francisco tryout run at the Curran Theatre. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, in turn based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation. Grey acted alongside Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth. The play received mixed reviews from critics but was an immediate financial hit. Grey was nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.
Grey returned to Broadway in spring 2011 as Moonface Martin in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Anything Goes at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre. Having previously portrayed Ned Weeks in the 1985 Off-Broadway production of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, he went on to co-direct with George C. Wolfe the Tony Award-winning revival in 2011, for which he and Wolfe were nominated for Best Direction of a Play at the 65th Tony Awards. The following year he made a guest appearance in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie opposite Edie Falco. He also acted in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2014), and Park Bench with Steve Buscemi (2014).
He returned to Broadway in the 2016 revival of the Anton Chekhov play The Cherry Orchard starring opposite Diane Lane, and Chuck Cooper. In 2018, Grey directed a Yiddish-language production of Fiddler on the Roof, which originated at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, then transferred to Stage 42 Off-Broadway. The production became a surprise hit, running for over a year and winning the 2019 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical Revival. He had a cameo role in the Lin-Manuel Miranda directed musical Tick, Tick... Boom! (2021). In 2022 he acted as Morgan Bote, a recurring character in the FX drama series The Old Man starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow.
In 1958, Grey married Jo Wilder; they divorced in 1982. Together, they had two children: actress Jennifer Grey (star of the film Dirty Dancing) and chef James Grey.
He is a photographer; his first book of photographs, Pictures I Had to Take, was published in 2003; its follow-up, Looking Hard at Unexpected Things, was published in 2006. His third book, 1.3 – Images from My Phone, a book of photographs taken with his camera phone, was published in 2009.
An exhibition of his work was held in April 2011 at the Museum of the City of New York, titled "Joel Grey/A New York Life." His fourth book, The Billboard Papers: Photographs by Joel Grey, came out in 2013 and depicts the many-layered billboards of New York City.
In January 2015, Grey discussed his sexuality in an interview with People, stating: "I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man."
Grey writes about his family, his acting career, and the challenges of being gay in his 2016 memoir, Master of Ceremonies.
For his continued support of Broadway, Grey was named a Givenik Ambassador.
He was presented with a lifetime achievement award on June 10, 2013, by The National Yiddish Theatre – Folksbiene.
Grey won the Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre on December 5, 2016, presented by the York Theatre Company in New York City. The theatre said, in part: "we are thrilled to celebrate the extraordinary Joel Grey, whose artistry — for over half a century — has become an indelible part of Broadway history."
Grey was honored as The New Jewish Home's Eight Over Eighty Gala 2015 honoree.
Grey was presented with the Teddy Kollek Award by the World Jewish Congress in November 2019.