John A. Willis

(Oct. 16, 1916– )

John Alvin Willis is an American theatre and film book editor, theatre awards producer, actor, and educator.

He was editor in chief of both "Theatre World" and its companion series "Screen World" for forty-three years. Founded in 1945 and 1949, respectively, "Theatre World" and "Screen World" are the oldest definitive pictorial and statistical records of each American theatrical and foreign and domestic film season, and are referenced daily by industry professionals, students, and historians worldwide.

"Theatre World" covers the complete statistical and photographic Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and regional theatre seasons, major theatrical awards, obituaries, and the longest Broadway and Off-Broadway runs, among other categories. It is currently edited by Ben Hodges. Screen World covers every domestic and domestically released film in photographs and statistics, with obituaries, the Academy Award nominees and winners, among other sections. It is currently edited by Barry Monush.

Mr. Willis has also served as editor of the "Dance World" and "Opera World" series, the landmark A "Pictorial History of the American Theatre 1860–1985", and A" Pictorial History of the Silent Screen." Previously, he served as assistant to "Theatre World" founder Daniel Blum on "Great Stars of the American Stage"," Great Stars of Film, A Pictorial History of the Talkies, A Pictorial History of Television, and A Pictorial Treasury of Opera in America."

For forty-three years Mr. Willis presided over the presentation of the annual Theatre World Awards, instituted in 1945 and the oldest awards given to actors for a Broadway or Off-Broadway debut role, and was instrumental in the organization gaining nonprofit status in 1997, and now administrated by its board of directors. The awards are currently chosen by a committee of New York drama critics, hosted by theatre critic Peter Filichia, and regularly overseen and attended by Mr. Willis.

At its inception in 1945, The Theatre World Award was bestowed upon such luminaries as Barbara Bel Geddes and Marlon Brando. Mr. Willis has personally awarded the Theatre World Award to performers as diverse and talented as Warren Beatty, Jennifer Holliday, and John Leguizamo, for their respective Broadway debuts, and as such and through his encouragement of performers for decades, provided encouragement and affirmation in a sometimes challenging industry. As the Theatre World Award is most performers’ first professional award, it is one regarded with a particular affinity by the New York theatre community.

Mr. Willis also founded the Theatre World/Screen World archive, widely considered to be the most complete privately held theatrical pictorial and statistical archive on twentieth century theatre and film, including complete press kits, publicity information, advertisements, all reviews, publicity photographs, and even ticket stubs, from nearly every Broadway and Off-Broadway production between 1950-2000, as well as much of the same from Off-Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions. And because of Mr. Willis’s personal interest in performers, he has amassed a collection of tens of thousands of photographs of performers from the twentieth century, many collected directly from the performers themselves, signed, and incredibly rare. Mr. Willis favorably responds to all inquiries for the loan of materials from the archive, and organizations such as the Actors Studio and "Vanity Fair" have used his photographs for tributes and articles. He has also been responsible for many annual deposits of his collected photographs and statistical information on films to the Institute of the American Musical, in Los Angeles, California.

On behalf of "Theatre World" and/or "Screen World", Mr. Willis has received a Special 2001 Tony Honor for “Excellence in the Theatre” and the 2003 Broadway Theatre Institute Lifetime Achievement Award, in addition to having received a Drama Desk Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and the National Board of Review William K. Everson Award, and Milligan College, as well awards from Marquis Who’s Who Publications Board, in which he has been consistently listed among luminaries in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Entertainment, and Who's Who in the East, for well over twenty years. He has served on the nominating committees for the Tony Awards and the New York University Hall of Fame, and is currently on the national board of the University of Tennessee Clarence Brown Theatre. He holds an undergraduate degree in English from Milligan College, and has done graduate work at Harvard University, Indiana University, and the University of Tennessee. In 2007, he was honored by his alma mater, Milligan College, when they dedicated the John Willis Wing of the new Gregory Center for Liberal Arts.

Mr. Willis is retired from the New York Public School System, with over twenty years of service as an English teacher. He is also a veteran of the United States Naval Reserve in the South Pacific during W.W. II., and a member of Actors Equity Association for over fifty years.

Originally from Morristown, Tennessee, Mr. Willis currently lives in New York City. At 92, Mr. Willis is widely regarded as the most important living theatre and film historian.

For more information on John Willis, "Theatre World, Screen World", or the Theatre World Awards, please visit: theatreworldawards.org or applausepub.com.