the "need to sin" in Hollywood (as Odets called it) irresistible. In his book Slings and Arrows: Theater in My Life, Lewis complains that "being short and round", he reluctantly had to accept that, as an actor, he fell into the character, rather than the leading man category. True enough, after moving to Los Angeles in 1940, he became known in Hollywood for his ability to transform himself into memorable screen characters, particularly characters of different nationalities. He played German officers, such as Colonel Pirosh in Paris After Dark (FOX, 1943), opposite George Sanders, and Sergeant Schmidt in Son of Lassie (MGM, 1945), starring Peter Lawford, Donald Crisp and June Lockhart. He became French collaborationist Maurice Bonnard in Tonight We Raid Calais (FOX, 1943), and the villainous Japanese Colonel Sato in Dragon Seed (MGM, 1944), starring Katharine Hepburn. A highlight of his Hollywood character actor career came when he played Frenchman Maurice Bottello opposite his friend Charles Chaplin in Chaplin's controversial film Monsieur Verdoux (1947). Though he went on to perform in and co-direct (with Vincente Minnelli) musicals like Ziegfeld Follies (MGM, 1946), starring Fred Astaire, and he directed the 1956 version of Anything Goes (Paramount), starring Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor, Lewis was strictly tied to a contract with MGM studios. Lewis reminisced he felt bored, underused and flustered in Hollywood; and struggled for some years to get out of his contract at MGM so he could return to Broadway and the East coast. Robert Lewis did return to New York in 1947 to direct his first big commercial success on Broadway, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's whimsical musical play Brigadoon. The Actors Studio In 1947, Lewis co-founded The Actors Studio, a professional actors' workshop, with former Group members, director Elia Kazan and producer Cheryl Crawford. The Actors Studio was an attempt to recapture the close ensemble nature of the Group, and to evolve and refine the methods first explored by the Group in the 1930s. The first year, about fifty young actors were invited to join. Lewis taught classes for advanced members with emphasis on inner action or intention, while Kazan, who preferred to work with the younger actors, held forth on technique exercises such as sensory recall, imagination and improvisation. In the first year alone, Robert Lewis' group, meeting three times a week, consisted of Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Mildred Dunnock, Jerome Robbins, Herbert Berghof, Tom