Gordon Davidson

Gordon Davidson, a theater and film director, died Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016, at his home in Los Angeles, according to multiple news sources. He was 83.

Davidson was the former director of the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles. Davidson, who ran the nonprofit arts organization’s 739-seat theater, the Mark Taper Forum, from 1967 to 2005. He attracted major award-winning Hollywood stars to act in plays at the flagship theater.

Davidson also directed plays including “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine” and “Murderous Angels” (1971), “Children of a Lesser God” (1982), and “Stuff Happens” (2005). In 1977, he directed the TV movie “The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald.”

Of his theatrical directing work, Davidson once said, “I like the community. I like the companionship. I like putting my arm around an actor and talking to them about a scene, and watching it ignite into something. I like seeing the results of a period of work that manifest in an opening night.”

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Davidson was born May 7, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York. In 1957, he received a master’s degree in theater from Case Western Reserve University.

Davidson leaves his wife, Judi Davidson; their two children, Adam and Rachel; two brothers, Michael and Robert; and five grandchildren.