George Birimisa (February 21, 1924 – May 10, 2012) was an American playwright, actor, and theater director who contributed to gay theater during the 1960s, the early years of the Off-Off-Broadway movement. His works feature sexually explicit, emotionally charged depictions of working-class homosexual men, often closeted, in the years before the 1969 Stonewall riots prompted the gay rights movement. Contemporary Authors stated that "Birmisa's plays feature themes of human isolation, frustrated idealism, and rage against needless suffering, usually centered around homosexual characters." According to theatre critic and playwright Michael Smith, Birimisa's writing "links the pain of human isolation to economic and social roots." Birimisa remained an active playwright, author, editor, and teacher until the end of his life. Early life and career Birimisa was born in Santa Cruz, California, one of five children born to Croatian Americans Charles and Anna (Gjurovich) Birimisa. While George was still a child, his father died as the result of injuries while under arrest after speaking in support of the Communist Party at a labor rally. Birimisa's mother remarried, but his stepfather rejected George and his two older brothers. He spent most of his childhood in a Catholic orphanage (St. Francis Catholic School for Boys) then in a series of foster homes. He left school after ninth grade. Birimisa married Nancy Linden in 1952, and they divorced in 1961. After serving in the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, Birimisa supported himself with a series of jobs, including factory worker, bartender, disc jockey, health club manager, television network page, prostitute, and Howard Johnson's counterman. While working at Howard Johnson's on Sixth Avenue in Greenwich Village, he once refused service to Walter Winchell when Winchell arrived after closing. In retaliation, the journalist ran a column calling the restaurant a hangout for "vag-lewd" (slang for homosexual) types. This publicity turned that branch of Howard Johnson's into a popular destination for gay men. The incident convinced Birimisa, who had begun writing fictional accounts of his life, to start writing honestly about his sexuality. He started writing plays at the age 41 while studying acting with Uta Hagen at the Herbert Berghof Studio. Playwriting career New York City Birimisa's first play, Degrees, was produced at Theatre Genesis in the East Village of Manhattan in February 1966. The play portrayed a gay relationship; at the time, gay plays were not receiving critical attention. "For years," the playwright recalls, "even