Lewy Olfson

Lewy Olfson was born in Boston, Massachusetts on April 2, 1937. He sold his first play, Infanta, an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde story, when he was 15, and for the next 25 years published a number of books for young people, many of them collections of plays or texts on acting, as well as a variety of materials in the field of education.

Among his books are Glimmer, Glimmer, Glumpkin, a collection of verses for reading aloud; a children's story, Paco and the Pizza; and a student handbook, 50 Great Scenes for Student Actors (Bantam Books) which remained in print for 24 years and sold half a million copies. He also wrote the reference book, Plot Outlines of 100 Famous Novels: The Second Hundred (Doubleday/Dolphin).

He was the author of two professionally-produced plays; the first was a complete failure, and the second didn't achieve quite that level of accomplishment.

His twin brother, Ken Olfson, was a successful film and television actor who died in 1997.