N. Richard Nash was born Nathanial Richard Nusbaum on June 8, 1913 in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Sael Leonard and Jenny (Singer) Nusbaum. Due to the transient nature of his father's work, Nash had to attend five different high schools. Nevertheless, Nash excelled academically and at age seventeen he entered the University of Pennsylvania on a full scholarship. Nash showed incredible talent as a writer and he earned prizes and acclaim for his work, but not much money. While in school, he directed plays at Bryn Mawr, a nearby woman's college, and earned pocket money as a taxi driver in Atlantic City, a telegram messenger at a North Philadelphia railroad station and as an errand boy at a Camden, New Jersey gambling house. Nash was president of the Pennsylvania Players and a member of the debating team. In 1934 he received a B.A. with honors in English and Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduation, Nash taught and directed plays at Harcum Junior College, served as Director of Theater at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, and published two books on philosophy: The Athenian Spirit and The Wounds of Sparta. During his free time Nash acted and directed for several community theatre groups. Nash's first published play So Wonderful (In White) had its debut in 1937 at the Harcum Experimental Theatre in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, under his direction. Nash later received critical success with his one-act play, Parting at Imsdorf (1940), which won the “Maxwell Anderson Verse Drama Award” (given by Stanford University), and a prize awarded by the Greater New York Federation of Churches. The play was also included in Margaret Mayorga's The Best One Act Plays of 1940.
Nash's first play to be produced in New York City was Second Best Bed, a play about Shakespeare, which premiered at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on June 3, 1946. Nash's next play, The Young and Fair, dealt with some of his experiences as a college teacher. It was produced in New York in 1948 and in England in 1949. Actor James Dean had his Broadway debut as Wally Wilkins in Nash's See the Jaguar, which opened on December 3, 1952. While See the Jaguar closed in less than a week, it was rated by critics and reviewers as a “success d'estime.”
Nash's success in Europe was generally greater than in the United States until his first major success in 1954 with The Rainmaker. A tribute to his older sister Mae, who served as the model of the story's enduring character Lizzie Curry, The Rainmaker first appeared at the Cort Theatre, October 28, 1954, with Geraldine Page as Lizzie. Eva Marie Saint, Nancy Marchand, Tuesday Weld, Sally Field, and Jane Atkinson are among the actresses who have performed the role of Lizzie. The Rainmaker was later made into a film starring Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, and as a Broadway musical, 110 in the Shade. Other Nash Broadway successes included Girls of Summer (1956), Handful of Fire (1958), Wildcat (1960), and The Happy Time (1968), which was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical in 1968.
In addition to his successful work as a playwright, Nash wrote and adapted numerous screenplays for film and television, including Nora Prentiss (1947), Welcome Stranger (1947), Sainted Sisters (1948), Dear Wife (1949), Molly (1951), The Vicious Years (1950), The Flying Missile (1950), Top of the World (1955), Helen of Troy (1956), The Rainmaker (1956), and Porgy and Bess (1959). On television, Nash wrote extensively for The U.S. Steel Hour, General Electric Theater, Television Playhouse, Philco Playhouse, and Theatre Guild of the Air. Nash was often consulted as a script doctor, and frequently worked with MGM's Samuel Goldwyn. Nash recalled Goldwyn's oft repeated way of calling after an MGM script reading to say, “Richard, it's perfect! Now come and fix it.”
In 1954, television producer Fred Coe and writers Nash, Robert Alan Aurthur, Paddy Chayefsky, Horton Foote, Tad Mosel, and David Shaw formed an enterprise named Playwrights '54. Their intent was to produce six half-hour television shows a year by each writer, guaranteeing each one at least $12,000 annual income. Sponsors would bid for the group's output, which was to be sold as a single package. Nash's The Joker was written for this venture and he also became a regular author for several of the most prestigious television anthology programs.
Nash's literary successes include the 1977 novel, East Wind Rain about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and two darker novels published under the pseudonym John Roc: Fire! (also published as a play: 1969) and Winter Blood (1971). Nash also worked as a college lecturer, wrote numerous articles for periodicals and newspapers, and a book, Dramatic Theory for the Actor. Nash's writing has appeared under the following names: Nathan Nusbaum, N. Richard Nusbaum, Nathan Richard Nusbaum, N. Richard Nash, Diedric Storm and John Roc.
Nash was married three times, to Helena Taylor, Janice Rule, and Katherine Copeland.
Nash died December 11, 2000 in New York City, at the age of 87. More information on Nash can be found at NRichardNash.com.
