Actors' Equity Association

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Actors' Equity<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr><tr><th>Founded</th><td>1913</td></tr><tr><th>Members</th><td>45,000 actors and stage managers</td></tr><tr><th>Country</th><td>United States</td></tr><tr><th>Affiliation</th><td>AFL-CIO</td></tr><tr><th>Key people</th><td>Mark Zimmerman, president</td></tr><tr><th>Office location</th><td>New York City, New York</td></tr><tr><th>Website</th><td>www.actorsequity.org</td></tr>

The Actors' Equity Association, commonly referred to as Actors' Equity, is an American labor union, formed at a meeting at Pabst Grand Circle Hotel New York City in 1913 by 112 actors working in the professional theatre. This followed secret meetings by a handful of influential actors at Edwin Booth's old mansion on Gramercy Square, The Players. Equity's first president was Francis Wilson and membership grew rapidly.

Marie Dressler, Ethel Barrymore & others during the 1919 strike

Wilson led them through the famous strike of 1919 that ended the iron-fisted dominance over actors and theatre workers by the Theatrical Syndicate and its theatre owners and producers like Abe Erlanger and his partner, Mark Klaw. Before the 1919 strike, Actors' Equity had 2,777 members. After the strike, it had increased to 14,000. Today, the Actors' Equity Association represents more than 45,000 actors and stage managers.

The Chorus Equity Association, founded during the 1919 strike with Marie Dressler as its first president, merged with Actors' Equity in 1955.

During McCarthyism of the late 1940s and 1950s when actors and other members of the film industry were being blacklisted, the Actors' Equity Association refused to bend to the will of the industry bosses and never banned any of its members. However, in its Constitution at that time, it was written that an actor could refuse to work alongside another actor who was a member of a Communist, or Communist front organization. At a 1997 ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Blacklist, Richard Masur, the then President of the Screen Actors Guild, said: "Only our sister union, "Actors' Equity Association", had the courage to stand behind its members and help them to continue their creative lives, in the theatre..."^{[citation needed]}

The association's national headquarters are at 165 West 46th Street in New York City with regional offices in Chicago and Los Angeles plus a satellite office in San Francisco and in Orlando, Florida.

Presidents of Actors' Equity Association:

• Francis Wilson  : 1913 – 1920
• John Emerson  : 1920 – 1928
• Ralph Morgan (acting president)  : 6/17–8/12,1924
• Frank Gillmore  : 1928 – 1937
• Burgess Meredith (acting president)  : 1937 - 1938
• Arthur Byron  : 1938 – 1940
• Bert Lytell  : 1940 – 1946
• Clarence Derwent  : 1946 – 1952
• Ralph Bellamy  : 1952 – 1964
• Frederick O'Neal  : 1964 – 1973
• Theodore Bikel  : 1973 – 1982
• Ellen Burstyn  : 1982 – 1985
• Colleen Dewhurst  : 1985 – 1991
• Ron Silver  : 1991 – 2000
• Patrick Quinn  : 2000 – 2006
• Mark Zimmerman  : 2006 - present

See also

• British Actors' Equity Association
• Clarence Derwent Awards

External links

• Actors' Equity website

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