Jules Irving

Jules Irving (né Julius Israel; April 13, 1925 – July 28, 1979) was an American actor, director, educator, and producer, who in the 1950s co-founded the San Francisco Actor's Workshop. When the Actor's Workshop closed in 1966, Irving moved to New York City and became the first Producing Director of the Repertory Company of the Vivian Beaumont Theater of Lincoln Center.

In 1955, the Actor's Workshop was the first West Coast theater to sign an Equity "Off-Broadway" contract. Irving had started the Workshop with fellow New Yorker Herbert Blau, whom he knew from undergraduate days at New York University and then during graduate study at Stanford University. Both men were professors at San Francisco State, with Irving serving in the Drama department and Blau in English.Irving was from childhood deeply involved in theater, supported in this by his family along with his older brother Richard, despite a degree of religious reservation inculcated by bizarre, bearded Russian/Yiddish-speaking rabbinical teachers that dis-inspired what Irving called a "lost generation" of the children of Jewish immigrants.He was active in school shows and made his Broadway debut at the age of thirteen in George S. Kaufman's The American Way. He joined the army in 1943, serving in the infantry during the Battle of the Bulge and as a Russian translator when his unit met Soviet forces. After V-E Day, he transferred to Special Services and had the opportunity to hone his theater managerial skills as he organized camp shows under Joshua Logan.